


+Diamond Dust+

by SHAMONIQALAXY



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, DaruGaa, Discrimination, F/F, F/M, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi, NaruSasu - Freeform, Suicidal Thoughts, Supernatural - Freeform, YugiKin, sakuino - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-07-24 13:09:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7509643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHAMONIQALAXY/pseuds/SHAMONIQALAXY
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From riches to rags, Yamanaka Ino must learn to navigate the world of the working class, all while surviving the violence and Freaks that rule the underbelly of society.</p><p>[HIATUS]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Don't I know you?

The nashing of chips between teeth filled the night air as the two cruised down main street, Shikamaru napping in the passenger's seat while his partner Chouji expertly navigated the road with one hand on the wheel and the other buried in a bag of BBQ potato chips between his lap. They made a good team. Every other partner Chouji had always complained, complained, complained--but Shikamaru? Dude could sleep through anything, and if he couldn't he'd damn well pretend to.

They came to a brief stop at yet another light. Few people walked the streets this time of night. At least, that's how it was in Konoha City. At around 11PM most residents were already home with their families, and the stragglers were desperately trying to escape work to do the same. Shikamaru greatly preferred these shifts, even if the people they did end up delivering to at this time were...strange. To say the least.

Chouji grunted when the light didn't turn green exactly when he thought it would, and was just about to angrilly munch some more when a movement caught his eye. 

Someone came stumbling out of an alleyway with a cardboard sign and a cup--standard fair of a beggar--nothing strange or new. What was strange was the woman's appearance. Long flowing blond hair, dirty but stylish purple croptop and dark jeans...far from a beggar, this person looked like money, if one were to ignore the smears of dirt and mud. Were those high heels? Chouji narrowed his already narrow eyes, trying to get a better look as the figure hobbled to the street, right towards them. That face looked familiar. 

"Just ignore her," Shikamaru grumbled, still half-asleep. Chouji frowned but kept staring even as the light turned green. No cars behind him, so no one should care, right? 

The woman held up her paper cup expectantly at the passenger window, much to Shikamaru's chagrin. The man sunk down in his seat as though somehow that would make her go away. To his horror, not only did she not magically disappear, but that dipshit Chouji actually rolled down the window--the fuck? The blond leaned in slightly, her bands obsuring half her face. She had the cracked remnants of makeup from days past and a far too irritated expression for someone asking for help. "Change?" she demanded rather than asked, shoving her little paper cup right under Shikamaru's nose.

The man glared at Chouji, but paused at his partner's serious expression. Chouji rarely got serious for anything, but when he did Shikamaru had the sense to start really paying attention. He jolted up in his seat. "What's wrong?"

Chouji stared right past him, his eyes steely from concentration. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" he started slowly, bringing a chip to his mouth but not eating it. 

The woman frowned at him and paused, now examining him just as closely. Her blue eyes hardened--maybe in recognition? "I doubt that." Ok, maybe not.

Shikamaru didn't know why, but he just got a bad feeling. "Alright, look," he started with a sigh, rummaging through his pockets till he came up with a few coins. He dumped them in the cup and pushed it just out the window. "Take this. We're busy." Not like he made a habit of being a dick to people, but at this time of night it was best not to mingle. Night was safe harbor to plenty of Freaks out there.

To his utter dismay, Chouji kept them idling, still boring a hole into the woman's soul until something finally clicked. His eyes bulged comically and he nearly dropped his precious potato chip pointing at her. "Ino Yamanaka from Konoha Academy?!"

"Shit, you know her?" Shikamaru threw his head back in his chair with a groan.

The blond visibly froze, mouth hung open in disbelief. If Shikamaru were to guess, he'd say she knew who they were before Chouji put a name to the face. So they all went to the same school, so what?

Chouji swallowed hard. "W--what are you doing out here?"

A loud tsk. "None of your business."

Well that settle that. Shikamaru turned to Chouji with a pointed look. "We still have deliveries--"

"--Wait!" Chouji bellowed, finally crunching the last chip before nearly driving them onto the sidewalk and parking--parking!--before hustling out the car. Ino Yamanaka was already halfway across the street by the time he caught up, gently grabbing her forearm. Much thinner than he remembered. "Where's your dad? Why are you..." the words left him as the blond roughly yanked her arm back and kept walking. He could hear his partner shouting at him from the truck but that didn't deter him. Chouji strived to keep peace with her as they rounded a corner. "Ino, wait, don't you remember me?"

Ino didn't pause, simply quickened her pace. "No." 

She was surprisingly fast for someone in six inch heels and skinny jeans. Chouji soon found himself panting for air and sweating. He knew he couldn't keep this up much longer, but the thought of his childhood friend on the streets kept him going just a bit longer. "Where... are you... going?" he panted, feeling his legs begin to cramp.

"Home," she spat, quickening her pace further if one could believe it. "Stop following me." She would have broken into a sprint if she hadn't heard a sudden and loud thump behind her. Her heart jumped out of her chest, forcing her to turn and see the man splayed out face first on the pavement. His back rose and fell with each gasp for breath and before she knew it, she was helping him to his feet. "Chouji! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" she stammered out in a blur of guilt and worry. The man leaned heavily on her as he caught his breath, hand to his chest like he couldn't get air fast enough. A few passersby stared at them from across the street, but otherwise people minded their own business, and that freaked her out even more. She didn't know how to handle this. Chouji's gasps were becoming more desperate until finally it clicked. "Where's your inhaler, Chouji?" Ino frantically began patting down his pockets until she found the small device. Chouji always carried one on him since he first collapsed in grade school. By the time the man was back in some kind of order, she was completely disheveled. Her blond hair at some point spilled from an already messy ponytail, curtaining her thin shoulders as she trembled in worry. 

Chouji straightened, taking his weight off her skinny frame and grinning wide for someone who almost died. "I knew you remembered me."

Blue eyes widened in shock, Ino stood stock still. All pretenses of vehement dwindled to a low burning shame. Her dirt-smudged cheeks pinked and she looked away. "It's not like I could forget." Lips pursed, she hugged herself to keep from shaking. The cardboard sign and cup she'd been carrying around were discarded somewhere along the sidewalk and she hadn't the will to go scraping for scattered coins at the moment. No matter how much her stomach rumbled. What to say? What to do? She never wanted anyone to see her like this, much less someone she knew. This was not who she was. Ino Yamanaka was too proud to admit she was destitute. She needed help. So when she found herself alone in a small, cozy room with a plush bed and a steaming bowl of soup she at first thought she was dreaming. How had things come to this? Right. She spilled her guts to her childhood friend, he took her in. For the time being. No further questions asked--just offered it to her because she needed it and she couldn't say no because where the fuck else could she go? Shikamaru, once he learned they were indeed classmates at one point, wasn't against the idea of her living upstairs, so long as she didn't interfere with their work. Chouji's parents were embarrassingly accommodating. She thought they may have gotten the wrong idea... Nevertheless, the soup was amazing. The bed was heavenly. Morning came and after just three hours of sleep she was wide awake and alert, half-expecting to be greeted by the sight of fragrant dumpsters and rats, half-surprised to find herself in an unfamiliar room. Despite the initial confusion, the smell of food dragged her out of bed pretty quickly.

The Akimichi's owned a restaurant on the east side of Konoha. The first floor consisted of the kitchen and dining area, while the second floor housed the live-in employees. Apparently they opened early, because the moment she wandered into the hall the sounds of people chattering downstairs filled the air. She found the bathroom okay, took a quick shower, did her best to wipe the grime from her clothes (her underwear, sadly, could not be salvaged and was unceremoniously buried deep within the trash bin), and gingerly stepped back into the hall. Hopefully they didn't mind she used their towels... Ino felt a stir of panic twisting her chest as she tiptoed to the stairway and peeped down, though she could only see the wall as the stairs bent right. This felt strange. Being in someone else's dwelling felt strange. Like she didn't belong. In a way, it was worse than being out on the street. At least the streets belonged to everybody. She didn't own anything here, and they could throw her out at any time. Gathering her courage, she strode down the stairs like she owned the place, head held high. Her blond hair was finger-combed as well as she could manage, still damp from her shower. As expected, the place was absolutely packed. People of all stripes were yammering away while chomping on fried rice, noodles, and other unhealthy eats. She found it a little disgusting, but tried not to show it as Shikamaru stalked by with a tray of drinks. He offered her a tired glance as he passed, dropping the drinks off at a table and moving on without another word. Great customer service. How did this place stay so busy?

"You're awake!" the screech startled her badly and she yelped as a strong hand pulled her aside. Chouji's mother. The woman appeared absolutely thrilled to see her. "How was your night? Did you sleep well? Are you hungry?"

"Um, I--I" Ino stammered, trying to find words amidst the barrage of questions. She meekly nodded instead, before she was roughly pulled to a small table and seated. 

"Wait right here, I'll have Chouji bring you something hot and fresh. Chouji!" The woman dashed off to what Ino presumed to be the kitchen, because she disappeared behind a door. She definitely had the wrong idea about something... 

A few minutes later, a sheepish Chouji was carrying a platter of scrambled eggs, pancakes, fruits, toast and jam with a glass of orange juice. She tried not to inhale the food the moment he set it down and instead opted to offer a weak smile. "Good morning," she mumbled quietly, barely audible over the chatter of hungry customers. "C--Can I really have all this? I..." she bit her lip, looking down at the food. "I promise I'll pay you back--"

"Don't be ridiculous," he grinned broad and laughed. "If I charged you for this, mom would kick the shit out of me."

She laughed at that and offered a small smile. In private, she was a big eater, but in the public eye she made sure to take small, careful bites. She already looked filthy, she didn't want to act filthy on top of that by shoveling food down her throat like her inner savage told her to. After a few bites, her hands stopped shaking, and it was only then she realized she had been shaking. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment and she tried to eat a bit faster. She needed a plan. Hell, she needed a job. The problem was, who would hire her looking like this? With no change of clothes, much less a home address, she was properly fucked. Even her ID card went up in smoke along with...Ah well, no use dwelling on the past. It would only make her lose her appetite. Ino stabbed at the last grape and brought it to her lips, only to spit it out the moment her eyes locked onto a pair of lazy black ones staring from across her table. Shikamaru sat right across from her, staring into the windows of her soul with a look so uninterested she felt insulted. He had his chin in his palm and his elbow on the table, leaning slightly against the wall. "Wh--what are you looking at?" she stammered, spearing the grape again to finish the job and trying to look unfazed. 

Shikamaru yawned and scratched his stomach, totally unimpressed. "Nothing much."

What a fucking asshole. She gnawed on the poor grape like it killed her family and slammed her fork down. "It's rude to stare."

"What?" he tilted his head in his hand, and his bushy ponytail sort of smooshed against the wall like a tattered paintbrush. "You're being pretty rude considering we took you in."

"Chouji's family took me in, not you," she corrected with a small smirk, feeling a small sense of victory. "Don't you have tables to buss?" Shikamaru frowned and stared a few seconds more before apparently giving up with a loud sigh. Now that she thought about it, it did seem pretty quiet now. She took a quick sweeping look around the dining area and--to her astonishment--the place was almost empty. Where had all those people gone? Were they ghosts? What the actual hell?

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Morning rush. It'll be pretty slow for a couple hours."

"Oh." Ino blinked, still shocked she'd missed a stampede of people emptying the restaurant. Well, she hadn't noticed this louse sitting in front of her until she'd gotten through her whole meal, so... maybe hunger made her inattentive? She couldn't know, she'd never gone hungry before. She looked up at him with a veiled sense of urgency. Hunger. It wouldn't be long until she'd be hungry again, dirty again, outside again. Her stomach twisted so much she thought she might lose her breakfast all over the table. The thought of Shikamaru having to clean it up made the idea slightly less palatable, but... she chewed her lip now, lost in thought until the lazy waiter waved a hand in her face. She snapped to attention and scowled. "What?"

He paused. "What are you going to do now?"

She blinked. She hadn't expected that question. At least, not from him. They didn't know each other at all, so why he gave two shits about her plans for the future she couldn't know. Unless he was already crushing on her. She hoped not. She did have that affect on men. Ino gave him a leveled stare. "I don't know," she admitted, though the worry she felt didn't tinge her words.

Shikamaru didn't miss a beat. "Why not just work here? The old folks seem to like you," he drawled, gesturing to the kitchen door. Her eyes went wide at yet another surprising question. _Work? Here? Me?_ Never in her life had she envisioned herself...serving people. No, people served _her_ , not the other way around. That's the way it always was. That's the way it always should have always been. But now... Now she envisioned it. Living upstairs in that tiny, pathetic excuse of a bedroom, busting her ass running between the kitchen and tables, probably beating back unwanted advances from grungy lower ranking businessmen and... Oh god. Wearing that hideous green apron. Ino nearly broke down then and there because she had no fucking idea what she was doing. On the outside though, she just looked constipated. Shikamaru could more or less guess what she was thinking. "It's better than sleeping outside."

Good point. Then again... "That's for them to decide, isn't it?" she argued, brows knitting together in worry.

Before Shikamaru even had the chance to roll his eyes the little bell at the entrance jingled, indicating a customer and he briefly glanced behind him. Ino followed his eyes to meet a goofy looking blond with weird whisker marks on his cheeks and squinty eyes. "Do you serve ramen?" the man practically shouted across the room, looking around perhaps for any waiters. 

Shikamaru pinched his nose and sighed. These were his least favorite type of customers. Without another word, he got up to go get the new order, leaving Ino alone to ponder what the hell she was going to do. She squirmed in her chair, looking around. The bell jingled again and her eyes were drawn back to the entrance. Three more people walked in, two of them looking absolutely exasperated and one of them stoic. A tall man with unruly silver hair and a black medical mask over his mouth, a shorter black-haired man in a fucking crop-top, and a pink-haired woman with little to no fashion sense. They all looked shifty in her opinion. She watched as Shikamaru seated them at a table and whipped out his little notepad to take their orders. She quickly lost interest and almost looked away before Crop-Top suddenly nudged Pinky and nodded his head in her direction. Pinky swiveled in her chair and they locked eyes. The most beautiful, dazzling emerald eyes were boring into her own and Ino wondered how the hell she hadn't noticed them before. Ino stiffened and turned back to her empty plate, idly locking her feet under the table as she waited for the voices to die down. Once she heard Shikamaru close the kitchen door, she chanced another peek and her heart dropped when she saw all four shifty characters staring right at her. Holy fuck, what did they want?

Could they be planning to kidnap and sell her to some underground sex trafficking ring? Maybe they knew her from somewhere? She didn't know them. Holy fuck, one of them was heading her way. Her heartbeat quickened and she nearly vomited when she realized it was Pinky-with-the-sparkly-emerald-eyes. The woman smiled politely and folded her arms, Ino's eyes lingering on her black-gloved hands. "Excuse me," she started, her voice light and friendly. "I don't mean to be rude, but don't I know you from somewhere?" Aw six paths of pain, not this again. This time, Ino really didn't know the person asking, so she shook her head, blond strands falling loose from her ponytail as she did so. The woman seemed undeterred and pressed further, "I feel I've met you somewhere..."

Thankfully Shikamaru re-emerged from the kitchen with a tray of drinks and an extra frumpy frown. "Your water," he stated, setting the glasses down on the coasters and boring a hole into Pinky's skull. The woman turned and smiled politely before returning to her seat without another word.

Ino breathed long through her nose and relaxed. Something about that woman unnerved her and for once she was thankful for the lazy waiter's mere presence. He sent her a weak shrug of the shoulder before grabbing her dishes and bringing them back to the kitchen. Ino tried not to pay any mind to the eyes undressing her till Shikamaru came back with a form in hand. He sat across from her with a sigh, dropping the single page along with the pen he used for orders. "Just fill out whatever you can and you're good to go."

She paused, staring down at what appeared to be an application for gainful employment. This was really happening. Well shit. She hesitantly took up the pen and began scribbling her information, leaving many spaces blank. Name. Date of birth. Social pin. What the hell did they need that for? Address.... She could feel his eyes following her hand as she wrote, until it came to that stop. She glanced up and he stared back. 

"Skip it," he sighed, eyes dropping back down to the application.

Ino nodded slowly and skipped what she needed to. Experience. She never worked a day in her life. Did two days of asking for change count? That really did take a lot of effort. She could stand on her feet in some mean heels for a long time.

"Skip it."

References. Fuck.

"Skip it."

Skills--

"Skip it."

She shot up angrily. "I have skills."

The man just scratched his head and opened his mouth to probably say something offensive when the blond from across the room screeched for his attention. Shikamaru humphed and gently took the pen from her, promising it back after taking their orders. Ino tried not to look and failed. That pair of emerald eyes were unabashedly staring at her and it unnerved/pissed her off. By the time Shikamaru got back he simply snatched up her application and told her to meet them in the kitchen for an interview. Chest tightening, she clambered up from her seat to follow, just glad to escape that piercing gaze. 

In the back of her mind, she knew she'd actually lucked out big time. It was no small miracle she happened to run into an old friend, whose parents happened to be so understanding, and owned an established business with an extra bed. This was really happening and she didn't know how to feel about it.


	2. The meaning of flowers...

_Konoha and Cloud City are on opposite ends of the province, but don't worry--we don't deliver there. That would be a good three hour drive. Actually, we only deliver within a ten mile radius. You know how to use GPS, don't you, dear? It's easy! Just..._

Curse word salad tossed over and over in Ino's mind as she sprawled awkwardly over the rust-bucket Shikamaru called a scooter, a skyscraper's worth of takeout stacked on the back and probably poorly strapped down. An entire month of standing on her feet (in a pair of Chouji's mother's shoes, that were a size too small) running up and down serving the perverts they called customers finally culminated to this day. The day she finally graduated to making deliveries directly to creepy fuckers' houses. Awesome! She puffed air to blow some stray strands of hair from tickling her nose and sighed. There was no delaying the inevitable. She pressed her forehead to the left handle and groaned. She didn't want to do this. But the Akimichi's were too kind to refuse. Chouji's mom was even nice enough to buy her two packs of underwear, and such a generous deed could not easily be repaid. Ino sat up abruptly, straightened, and started up the scooter. It was a little scary at first, but soon she was zipping through the streets like she'd been born to ride this piece of shit. The wind blew past her body, no longer thin and brittle from hunger. The Akimichi's seemed dead set on fattening her up for hibernation or something. A small smile crossed her lips as she made a sharp turn, checking the GPS on Shikamaru's phone for directions.

The first few apartments were horrible experiences, as she expected. Ever since she'd been homeless, she'd had nothing but shitty experiences with men--the Akimichi's and Shikamaru excepted--and it was seriously making her question her sexuality. By the time she reached the last stop for the night, she'd resolved to slug this fucker if they even wiggle their eyebrows at her, much less offer a bigger tip for some "extra service". Plastic bag of food in hand, she parked the scooter and rushed up the stairs to the apartment building. This one was a bit further out and actually looked much nicer than the rest. Inside was pleasantly cold and the ding of a nearby elevator made her heart soar. No stairs! Easily the best part of her night.

Ino bounced over to the elevator and pressed the button about five times, wiggling a little as she waited. She paused, took a brief look around to make sure she was alone, then resumed wiggling till the doors slid open. She rode it to the top floor and strode to the last door, raising her finger to the buzzer when a loud smack froze her in place. It sounded...like it came from within the apartment. Like, the one she was standing in front of at that moment. Another whack, louder than the last, made her yelp with a jump, and she debated whether or not to just turn back. Then the door opened. Aw shit.

"Took your damn sweet time, didn't you," growled an angry woman, tall and slightly muscular, with her thick spiky blond hair tied into four ponytails. Despite the obvious agitation, Ino relaxed at the sight. At least it wasn't another pervert. The woman eyed Ino up and down, before her snarl melted into a sly smile. "You're pretty hot." Huh. Scratch that. Huge pervert.

Ino rolled her eyes, shoving the plastic bag in her face. "Please sign here," she drawled, ripping the receipt from where it was stapled to the bag and handing it her. The woman took both items with a snicker and disappeared momentarily, only to pop up again with a pen. As she was scribbling with the paper against the door frame, she gave Ino another quick sweeping sideglance. "Where's Shikamaru? That asshole finally quit?"

That perked Ino's interest. This woman knew Shikamaru by name... were they friends or something? Shikamaru didn't seem like the type who had many friends. Then again, he didn't seem the type to hold a job either. "Today's his day off," she muttered, inwardly wondering if she should be giving this suspicious person any information at all. If they were friends then it probably couldn't hurt.

The woman handed her the receipt with a frown. "Day off? That little shit didn't mention anything about that."

"Um," Ino hesitated, shifting from foot to foot. She produced the customer copy. "Are you friends or...?"

"Hell no." That was fast...

"Temari," whined a high pitched voice from inside the apartment. A naked brunette sauntered up behind the blonde, Temari, with a small whip in her hand. She shot Ino a confused look, head tilted to the side so her long brown hair spilled past her shoulders. "Who are you? Did Nara finally quit?"

Why did they keep saying "finally"??

Temari snapped back, " _Get_ back inside, slut." Ino raised a brow. She couldn't decide whether to run for the hills or stay and watch the show, because this was some reality TV shit. The brunette pouted but did as she was told, disappearing somewhere within the lioness's den. Temari tsked, before turning a smirk to Ino and closing the door, leaving just a crack. "Alright, hun, drive safe. Tell that lazy ass to call me."

Ino just laughed nervously as the door gently clicked shut. She what-the-fucked right out of that apartment building and headed back to the restaurant, zoned out most of the way. Luckily traffic was sparse. As she rolled up, she guided the scooter round back where she could lock it up and headed in through the kitchen's backdoor. Her feet were killing her dead and she wanted nothing more than to rip the greasy apron off and head for the shower. Unfortunately, a certain someone apparently scheduled a fight with her because before she even made it to the sink, a hand roughly gripped her shoulder, spun her like a top and shoved her back against the wall, and she had two guesses who this fucker might be. Kin hissed in her ear, "That took too long. Wasting company time can get you fired."

The blonde huffed in a dramatic fashion and wrenched herself free, tearing off her apron. She'd have to whip someone with it if they didn't back up. "I'm not in the mood today, Kin. Stop."

Kin snorted. She stood about a head shorter than Ino, but she carried herself as though she were looking down her nose all the damn time. She wore her signature black sleeveless tank top and puffy camo pants, silky long black hair resting at the small of her back, with a little purple bow tied at the bottom. Ino had the pleasure of working the first two weeks ignorant of the fact Kin was even employed there, until one day the raven-haired woman returned from her vacation and immediately started shit. How did she maintain this job for three years? Nobody liked her! If it were up to Ino she'd be fired yesteryear. Kin moved swiftly like a cat, blocking Ino from reaching the staircase. A nasty smirk plastered on her face as she crossed her arms. "Oh please, you have nothing better to do. Did you have fun at Temari's? I hear she's wicked with a paddle."

Ino would have retorted if the comment hadn't thrown her off, but she quickly regained composure and pushed pasted Kin. The faster she got her shower, the faster she went to sleep, the faster morning came--and that meant her first check! The thought of finally getting paid at the end of the month erased Kin from her memory completely; she didn't even hear the woman shout something derogatory on her way up. Shikamaru passed her on her way to the bathroom and called out. Ino glanced back to see his hand outstretched, and his mouth set in a lopsided frown. She rolled her eyes, reaching into her pocket and tossing him his phone. At this point, they didn't need to exchange many words, if at all, to know what the other wanted. They just knew, and she wasn't sure if that should scare her or not. She opened the bathroom door and paused, throwing Shikamaru a mischievious grin. "By the way, Temari said to call her."

Shikamaru almost fell down the stairs, he flinched so hard. Ino just laughed and went about taking that shower.

Morning could not come fast enough. Ino awoke with a stretch, rubbing her eyes before she remembered that's not good for the skin, then opting instead to stretch some more. She quickly dressed in the one clean outfit she had (a painfully plain t-shirt and baggy jeans borrowed from Couji's mother...). Payday today, coincidentally, landed on a Monday--meaning the restaurant was closed for the day. Whoever decided the place would be closed every Monday was a genius. Fuck Mondays. Ino practically floated downstairs, she was so happy. Everyone was already up--even that witchling Kin Tsuchi, who usually slept in--and eating breakfast around one of the tables. She slipped into the one empty chair and glanced about, her smile slowly fading as she took in the sullen faces. Why was everyone so gloomy? It's... It's payday!

Picking up a fork, she idly poked at her sunny-side up egg, watching it burst into yellowy goodness, before offering a nervous 'Good morning'.

Chouji hummed loudly and folded his arms. His folks did the same, while Shikamaru was sort of half-asleep with his head tilted back and mouth agape. Kin had a childish pout, her arms also folded but not in a thoughtful kind of way like the others. 

"Okay, seriously, what's wrong?" Hopefully this had nothing to do with her check. She truly appreciated them letting her stay there and work and everything, and honestly if they were deep in the red she wouldn't mind taking a cut--but for fudgecicle's sake she needed to buy her own clothes, her own shoes. If she had to parade around town in old woman's clothes a day longer she'd scream!

Chouji cracked an eye open and frowned even deeper, if that were possible. "We're at a stalemate," he grumbled in all seriousness. 

Ino waited. And waited. "...And...?"

Shikamaru snorted, shot up as though he'd been electrocuted, probably realized it was a dream, then promptly slouched again in sleep. Kin threw her head back in a frustrated growl. "You people do this every time!"

"Do what?" Ino asked, getting more and more confused by the second.

The father chimed in. "Chouji's birthday is coming up this Saturday, but..."

"Do we have pizza buffet, or barbecue?" Chouji grumbled to himself, more than asked.

Ino paused to let that thought sink in. They had the place all gloom and doom over food. Without another word, she proceeded to eat her breakfast. Mrs. Akimichi eventually got around to dishing out pay, afterwhich Ino gracefully took her exit. Kin, to her dismay, followed her out right after, brushing up against her as though Ino took up too much sidewalk. "Where are you headed?" she asked with nothing short of a sneer.

Ino wanted to smack those lips right off her face but restrained herself. Quite a feat if she did say so herself. "I'm going shopping," she admitted. Hands in her pockets, she idly pinched the fat coin purse between her fingers in thought. She'd managed not to look disappointed in front of everyone when she saw the amount. For a month's worth of work, she'd been paid peanuts. Is this really how the masses lived? Is this how she would be living the rest of her life? A shiver ran up her spine. This salary couldn't even afford a set of her favorite brand of nail polish, much less a whole new wardrobe. Brand names were off limits. Most stores were off limits really. So lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear Kin nagging her until the shorter woman grabbed her upper arm and yanked. Ino blinked, looking down at her.

"I said, where are you going?"

The blonde pursed her lips, brows furrowed in annoyance. She yanked away and kept walking.

Kin quickened her step as well to keep pace, breathing a bit more now as they walked. "Your prissy ass won't be able to afford all that high-end shit, you know," she smirked, though her heavy breathing from having to walk that pace did make Ino feel better. "I can tell you a good place."

"I refuse to shop at some filthy good will store," Ino bit out, teeth grinding at the mere thought. Hell no, hell no, _hell no._

Kin looked genuinely shocked. "What's wrong with good will stores? Snooty bitch, it's all you'll be able to afford at this rate." She narrowed her eyes, staring straight ahead as they weaved through the pedestrian traffic. Finally they came to a stop at a crosswalk, the light still blaring bright red at them. Kin seemed pensive, but soon broke the silence again. "It's really not that bad you know... Good quality, cheap prices. You just gotta be willing to sift."

Ino looked down at her, puzzled, searching the smaller woman's face for any signs of treachery and for once not finding any. She narrowed her eyes as well, "Why are you being so helpful?"

A pause. A shrug. "You look pitiful." Kin smirked up at her. "Having to wear some old lady's clothes everyday. It's too sad," she snickered, holding a hand to her mouth as her dark eyes curved in glee. 

Okay, that at least seemed more like her. Ino sighed, knowing she'd cave eventually but it was still worth prolonging it. "Fine. Where is it."

A turn here, a turn there, take this train, then straight down this street. Ino remembered each direction easily, but the shifting surroundings kept her questioning and doubting. This couldn't be the right area. Could it? The further she walked, the less people there were, the fewer cars. Things were becoming run down. Kind of like the places they usually delivered to but worse. Like the south side of the city got nuked or something. Maybe Cloud City staged chemical warfare this side of Konoha and that's why the two cities were so pissed at each other. But Kin swore up and down, left and right that this store had the good shit. Amazing deals, she said. There'd better be. She hastily searched the street for a bright red sign for a popular fast-food chain, and when she found it, practically dashed over. Not that she'd ever touch fast food. The store was supposedly right next to it, and it actually took her a while to find the damn place because there weren't any signs. Fantastic business model. Fucking idiots.

She slipped inside and immediately felt out of place. It was dark. Quiet. A little creepy. If the racks upon racks of clothing weren't there she'd assume she stepped into an underground dungeon. A red-headed woman with thick black-framed glasses stood behind a counter reading a magazine and paying Ino absolutely no mind. No greeting or anything. Ino shook her head lightly, opting to just start browsing. There were a lot of black clothes. In fact, most everything was black, and had some variants of tacky fishnets or lace. The lace, at least, she could work with. The excessive fishnets reminded her too much of Temari. She wrinkled her nose, shifting through more and more until she came across something with _color_. A deep purple tank top with overlaying purple floral lace that covered the arms and collar. Her fingers nimbly flipped through the tags to find a very nice-looking price (suspiciously low compared to what she used to pay for such items. What were these things made of?), and swiftly flipped the garment over one arm and kept looking. She was not a huge fan of black, but blues were nice, the few that she did find. The pants at least were a much more palatable selection and before she knew it she'd stacked a decent mountain on her left arm. Luckily, she was shopping alone today, because after the three hours she spent sorting through and trying on every little thing anyone who may have been with would have probably dug their eyes out from boredom. From boredom, not from how fabulous she looked.

A tiny TV hung from one corner, set to a low volume, but nevertheless caught her eye every once in a while. It kept recycling the same news stories. She had not watched TV in so long and at one point she actually gave in and stopped to listen.

The camera kept switching between a buxom weather woman and a buxom news anchor. It was expected to rain later today, the entire week's forecast looked gloomy, and oh, there was a potentially homicidal supervillain burglarizing jewelry stores across the city. The few glimpses they caught of the thief revealed what looked like a black tuxedo, a white cat mask, and long dirty blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail. Ino snorted, hell that could be anyone. Who did that guy think they were, Tuxedo Mask? She tore away from the black box, presuming such nonsense had nothing to do with her--where would she find the money to go hunting for jewelry?--and resumed shopping for clothes.

Ino narrowed down her selection to three lacy tops, two dark blue jeans and a black skirt. There were no decent shoes here, but hey, a great shopaholic didn't limit herself to one store. She hung up the rejects on the reject rack and piled her selection at the counter where the bored red-head stood still reading her magazine. Ino wondered if the woman even flipped one page since she walked into the store.

After a few minutes of silence, Ino cleared her throat and the woman looked up, clearly annoyed. Her brows knitted together and lips curled--but the sour expression soon fell. It better had, or they'd have a problem. "Is that all?" she asked curtly, snatching up the items one by one and removing the hangers. 

Patience. "Yes," Ino answered with a thin-lipped smile. Her eyes quickly glanced at the woman's nametag--"Karin"--before darting back to her face. Maybe this girl was just having a bad day. They seemed to be about the same age, so they should be able to get along. She tried to force a more gentle smile, "Having a long day?"

The red-head paused in scanning the next item, giving Ino a brief glance before pursing her lips and moving on. "Not that it's any of your business," she started, pushing up her glasses with her middle finger. "but yes, I'm having a shitty-ass day. Your total is 9500."

 So much for getting along. Ino chalked it up to Miss Karin really hating her job and did her the favor of paying without another word. 

By the time she slipped outside, black shopping bag in hand, the skies were already overcast with thick, rumbling rain clouds. But she couldn't go back yet. She sorely needed at least one pair of shoes and...a decent birthday gift for Chouji. Looking left to right, her clear blue eyes landed on a particularly shifty group of people heading her way. They all wore some variation of gray or black and it was hard to see any faces under the shadow of hoods. She snapped her vision straight forward and quickly crossed the street to duck into a random store. Hell if some weird ass people were going to pick _her_ out of the crowd. As dressed down as she was, she still stuck out like a sore thumb in these neighborhoods. This store was much brighter than the last with clothes and shoes much more to her tastes. That...sort of pissed her off. The man at the counter of this store gave her a toothy smile and a cheerful wave, which relaxed her a little. In no time she picked out a very comfy pair of closed-toe black flats and an open-toe pair of white wedges. After all that time running around the streets in killer heels she wouldn't be buying stilletos anytime soon. 

She picked through a few wallets and found a light blue one with pink and white floral patterns, but no price tag. She brought it to the counter and leaned over with a friendly smile, "Excuse me, can you please tell me how much this is?" 

The man chuckled with a "sure", still grinning wide and showing off razor sharp teeth. That, accompanied by the billowing white hair made him look a little creepy, but anyone friendlier than that last woman she dealt with was a welcome change. "Eight ryo, miss," he handed her the wallet.

Ino couldn't help but raise a brow. "You mean... 800 yen?" He didn't seriously expect her to whip out gold coins now did he?

The man laughed and nodded, "That works too."

A genuine smile pulled at her lips. This guy was alright. In the end she bought quite a few things. Along with the shoes and wallet, she purchased a pastel nail polish set, criminally cheap eyeliner and pink-tinted lipgloss, a brown shoulder bag with white lace trim, a sleek black purse, a hairbrush and some embarrisingly girly hair pins.

Her mood much lighter leaving this store, the ever darkening clouds didn't bother her at all. The sudden lack of pedestrians to weave through didn't seem strange at all--that just meant less footwork for her! She stopped at a street corner and glanced about, seeing no one she recognized, she giddily rifled through her bags to find that pair of cute black flats and swapped them out for the dirty borrowed shoes. Wearing something that was hers made a pleasant tingle run up and down her back. If she had a mirror on hand she'd probably check to see how goofy her smile looked. Good thing she didn't have a mirror. She wiggled a little in place, waiting for the light and resisting that savage urge to dance when a strange sound demanded her attention. A light scuffling of boots against pavement.

 She swiftly turned around only to see an empty sidewalk. That should have made her happy, but a small uneasy feeling startled to settle in, like a stone weighing heavy in her stomach. The moment the crosswalk lit up she dashed across and practically ran all the way back to the restaurant, not even catching a train along the way. Chouji's gift would have to wait.

Unfortunately for her, it started pouring about halfway there, soaking her head-to-toe in deep regret that she hasn't waited to pull on those shiny new shoes. Using her elbow to shimmy open the door, she slid into the empty dining area sopping wet and mad as hell, grumbling under her breath plans for vengeance upon that evil buxom weather lady. How dare she predict the weather. Clearly had she not opened her buxom mouth about rain it would not have rained. The blonde shivered and closed the door, rushing upstairs to take a shower and deposit her things. After a quick hot shower and change, she rushed downstairs to clean up the watery mess, only to find a very grumpy Shikamaru mopping the floor. A pang of guilt had her rushing over, trying to grab the mop from him. "Let me do it. It's my fault."

He scoffed, holding a hand to the blonde's shoulder to keep her at bay. "I'm already doing it. Go paint your nails or something." 

Ino frowned, now getting annoyed. "Stop cleaning up after me! I said I'd do it."

"Stop making messes for me to clean up then."

" _What was that?_ " She could feel a vein on the verge of popping and Shikamaru instantly regretted opening his big lazy mouth. That's it. She lunged at him as he swiftly spun around, guarding the mop like a precious lover, while she clung to his back reaching for it. "Give it to me!" 

"Stop it!"

The two totally mature adults were pushing and scratching like this was back at the old schoolyard and Ino for the life of her couldn't figure out why the man was so adamant about refusing her help. Even though he was so fucking lazy! He should be _begging_ her to do it! Chouji at some point came downstairs, saw them scrabbling, and made the very Shikamaru-like choice to walk back upstairs and not get involved. Ino won out eventually. She'd never felt so satisfied doing manual labor. Shikamaru slouched into a chair in utter defeat, grumbling under his breath about troublesome women.

The floor sparkled after its cleaning like it'd just been polished and Ino reckoned someone could eat off it. Not her though. She shot Shikamaru a cocky smirk and handed him to mop, to which he sighed, "If you're so into cleaning, at least put the mop away yourself."

Another vein popped. "What did you say?" Hands on her hips, she strode over and leaned down so they could glare nose to nose like real women...er, and men.

"I'm not interrupting something, am I?"

The two jolted away and the intruder chuckled. Shikamaru twisted in his seat as though he were trying to strategically hide behind Ino, but the treacherous woman stepped aside to leave him in full view of an amused Temari. Ino laughed nervously, flashbacks from that bizarre delivery episode playing in her mind. "G-good afternoon."

Shikamaru stammered, "We're closed."

"I know." Temari briefly nodded at Ino in greeting before the friendly smile faded into a scowl. "You never called me," she said in a dangerously low voice, stalking closer to Shikamaru like a tiger to its prey.

Okay, Ino probably didn't want to see what was coming next, so she quickly excused herself and bolted outside amidst her friend's desperate pleas for help. Then she cursed herself. Why the hell did she run outside and not upstairs? At least it had stopped raining.... With a heavy sigh, she set about wandering aimlessly. Maybe now she could browse a few stores for Chouji's gift. With no destination in mind, she wasn't at all surprised to find herself uptown within the hour, familiar storefronts and restaurants lining the streets. Passing by store windows with elaborate displays of the latest styles made her bite her lip in agonizing envy. She paused at one store in particular. An artsy floral design shop she used to frequent as a child. The current display treated its viewers to vibrant splashes of orange roses, yellow daisies and smatterings of red that curved the middle like a river of petals. Summer arrangements that made her heart flutter. The silhouette of a tall man coming up behind her in the glass's reflection gave her a fluttering of a different sort and she jumped.

Ino spun around with arms raised, ready to punch the shit out of this guy when her eyes met cool black. Dark black bangs fell over a pale white face, taking her back to her university days. "Sasuke?" She breathed in relief. "You scared me! What are you doing here?"

Sasuke frowned, "I came to pick up flowers, but..." 

Ino raised her brows in surprise. She had only known the man for about 2 years, they'd met in their junior years as undergrads, but she didn't take him for someone interested in things like flowers. It certainly couldn't have been for a girl. Sasuke was gay as a Gothic pride parade, something she'd found out after an entire year of chasing after him like an idiot. It was surprising he even approached her unprompted. She flushed at the wave of embarrassing memories and tried to stammer something sensical, "B--but what?"

Lips pursed, he seemed to run some excuses through his head, before heaving a morbid sigh. "I don't know anything about flowers," he admitted and looked away. 

Ino took the hint. "You want my help?"

He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "If you're not busy."

That was...new. Sasuke never asked her for help with anything. Ever. He must really be desperate. She twiddled her fingers, trying hard not to stammer this time. "I'm...not busy," she blushed and stared down at her shoes. Sasuke just nodded awkwardly and they entered the store. The perfumated air quickly calmed her rattled nerves and she relaxed, looking to Sasuke more confidently. "Who are they for?" He seemed apprehensive to answer, so she quickly added, "It helps me if I know what occasion it's for."

"A marriage interview," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ino blinked. "You're getting...married?"

He folded his arms and grimaced. "My brother is having a marriage interview today."

Oh. That made sense. Wait a minute--"Who does marriage interviews in this day and age? Seriously?" She shuddered at the idea. Leave it to rich people to cling to such old-fashioned ideas.

Sasuke relaxed a little, the tiniest of smiles tugging the corners of his lips. She smiled back, and they continued looking. Ino drifted over to the assortment of carnations, admiring the quality with a critical eye. She asked without looking up, "Do I know this person?"

"What?"

Ino looked up then, eyes half-lidded, "The person your brother is meeting. Do I know her?"

Sasuke frowned. "You probably don't know her personally. She's a Hyuuga. Hinata Hyuuga."

She would have been offended had it been any other name, but the Hyuuga were notorious for being close-knit and closed off. The fact it was a Hyuuga made the term "marriage interview" sound like a bad joke. It was practically set in stone. No one said no to a Hyuuga. Especially not the heir. Not even Itachi Uchiha. Ino swallowed, "I see."

She turned back to the red carnations in thought, suddenly shifting toward the paler colors. "Red won't do then. Hinata Hyuuga is pretty timid, so I hear. We need something to convey deep interest, but not too passionate."

Sasuke eyed her thoughtfully and glanced at the flowers. He honestly couldn't tell them all apart. He reached for a yellow carnations before his hand was viciously slapped away. He stared at Ino, astonished, and nearly shrank back from the look of utter horror on her face.

"Are you crazy?!"

Sasuke blinked. "What did I do?"

"That's the absolute worst selection! Are you trying to sabotage your own brother? You know what," she pushed him aside so he was far, far away before going back to the lighter shades. She brushed a bundle of white petals with her fingers and smiled. She looked at Sasuke, "These."

He just rolled his eyes. "They're practically the same thing..." He muttered under his breath, but Ino didn't even dignify that statement with a retort.

They had a full bouquet wrapped and paid for in the blink of an eye. Sasuke felt incredibly awkward just holding them in public, but he was grateful to have the whole ordeal over and done with. Ino smirked and bumped shoulders, staring up at him with a knowing smirk. "Aren't you glad I was here? I totally saved your butt," she snickered. All the nervousness and bashfulness she'd felt earlier fell away; now she felt a sort of...friendly comradery towards her ex-crush.

 "Thanks," he grumbled, leaning away. With his free hand he flipped open an old cell phone. "It's getting late. I'll walk you back."

Suddenly the thought of her _very_ wealthy ex-crush seeing the state of her living conditions terrified her and irrational as it may seem, she knew she just couldn't do that. A shiver visibly wracked her body and she shook her head so hard her hair whipped Sasuke in the face. "No, no, no, no, no--that's fine! _I'm_ fine!"

Sasuke raised a brow but didn't say any more. They parted ways shortly after and she scurried back to her temporary home. It...wasn't like she was embarrassed over the Akimichi's place or that she didn't trust Sasuke not to judge her, but...Ino hovered at the door, chewing her lip. What was she ashamed of? Now she felt like shit.

She _was_ ashamed. 

*

Night fell.

Quiet reigned supreme. Not even Kin broke the serenity with her terrible punk rock music. Ino had the little room to herself. She'd painted her nails a pastel purple and sat at the desk in nothing but underwear, blowing across as her spread fingers. She hummed low as images scrolled past her mind's eye. She needed a cell, makeup remover (not buying any that day was a huge mistake), night cream...a light tap at the window rudely disrupted her thoughts and her first guess was yet another crow pecking bugs off the window sill. Those creepy fuckers were always messing with her. Another tap, louder this time, actually made her jump. She stared at the curtain and waited. Another tap. Her blood ran cold at the thought of peaking behind the curtain. Then she remembered this was the second floor and it would take a very dedicated pervert to scale the side of a building just to tap her window. It had to be a crow.

Feeling silly for getting scared, she got up and gingerlyoved the curtain aside, careful not to get any lavender polish on the fabric. No crow in sight. She smiled nervously. Obviously it flew away when it sensed her coming. Relieved, she peered down below and promptly felt her heart leap to her throat.

A figure stood in the darkness staring up at her.

Ino shrieked, cupping a hand over her mouth to stifle it. She stared, trying to make out some features. The figure stepped closer and raised a leg to the wall, as though testing the sturdiness, and in a flash the figure fucking wallkicked their ass to her window. She could hear the hand slam onto the top frame, holding them up while their other hand waved. Her heart thumped twice, once from the ridiculous stunt, twice from recognizing the face. They smirked at her through the grass while pointing down the window, and she half-contemplated just closing the curtain and going to sleep...then again this crazy person might have gorilla strength too and could just rip the wall off. Open the window it is. She struggled a bit, but the jammed sill gave way and slid up noisily. Ino jumped back as the figure slipped inside, brushing aside the curtain as they stepped into the room.

Without thinking, Ino had backed against the door. "Good evening," she whispered lowly, gaze darting between the floor and a beautiful pair of emerald eyes.

Sakura flipped a lock of pink hair over her shoulder. Still wearing those strange black gloves and the hideous padded green jacket that clashed with the red shirt underneath, and plain short white skirt, she somehow managed to appear more or less well put together. It probably had to do with that unshakable air of confidence. But what was this woman doing standing in the middle of Ino's room in the middle of the night?

A thought crossed her mind that made her giggle, "You aren't here to kidnap me or something, are you?"

Sakura laughed lightly, a playful glint in her eyes. "I am, actually."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for hanging on this far. I don't have much time to write, unfortunately, but I did spend some minutes through the week plotting ahead. Please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions, because I'm really writing off the cuff here, with only a few bare-bones outlines to go on. Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter :) See you next time.


	3. What we can't remember--

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura is confusing. Two-Tails strikes again.

"Kidnap me?" Ino half chuckled, half whimpered. It sounded so absurd now that she couldn't help the awkward laugh or two, but her back still pressed hard against the door.

Sakura laughed softly with a shake of her head, whispy pink bangs swaying to and fro. "Well, that makes me sound like a bad guy, doesn't it?" She stepped closer and Ino didn't have the liberty of stepping back. Her expression softened as she outstretched both arms, taking another step. "I just want to have a little chat. It's been so long."

As her guest advanced closer and closer, Ino's heart sped, until it felt ready to burst from her chest. "Y--your not a h--human trafficker, are you?"

Sakura stared. "What?"

"Are you here to harvestmyorgans--" her breathing became more erratic as images of herself lying cut open in a bathtub of blood flooded her mind's eye, making her panic. Then she noticed Sakura's slack jaw and wide-eyed look of shock, which did calm her down. Just a little.

The pink haired woman sputtered a bit before hastily shaking her head, all amusement gone from her voice. "No! Of course not! Why would I--I would never--do I look the type?"

Ino took a long sobering breath, misty blue eyes darting to the black gloves and back, and nodded. "A little."

Following her gaze, Sakura held up both hands with fingers splayed, "I promise you, I just want to talk. I won't hurt a hair on your head."

"We can talk here," Ino spoke softly. Why did this stranger want to take her away? Why couldn't they talk right here?

Sakura frowned. "Because we have quite the audience here, for one," she said curtly, nodding at the door.

Ino furrowed her brow, finally peeling herself off the door and pulling it open, only to have Kin nearly fall into her. Shikamaru and Chouji were crouched behind the petite woman, and they all looked as though she'd caught them naked in a church. Her mouth gapped open, "What are you all doing?"

Kin huffed and shuffled into the room, shooting Sakura heated glares but otherwise saying nothing. The men appeared far more guilty, sweat glistening their faces and shifty eyes. Chouji coughed loudly, "We heard you yelp, so--"

"I did not yelp!" Ino shouted, temporarily forgetting it was the middle of the night.

Chouji flinched and actually jumped behind Shikamaru, who was alternating between apologetic grumbles and suspicious looks directed toward their former customer. He recognized the mysterious woman, of course. Not many people had bubblegum pink hair and he distinctly remembered questioning its natural status the first time he'd seen her. What the hell was she doing in Ino's room and how would they get her to leave? He held up his hands in an attempt to placate the blonde, though his questions were directed at Sakura. "Who are you?"

The pink haired woman sighed in agitation, obviously not having planned for this at all. She looked to Ino and shrugged, "We're old friends, you could say."

Ino turned to her then, eyes wide in surprise at the declaration. "We are?" She blurted it without thinking.

"We're not?" Sakura appeared just as surprised. Then delicate pink eyebrows furrowed. "Old rivals?"

"We are?" Ino could not help but repeat herself, and the two stared bewildered at each other, and if this were confusing to them, it must have been a real trip for their onlookers. Did this Sakura person honestly expect her to play along with some rouse to explain her presence there? Or did they really know each other from somewhere? She honestly could not recall, and like Shikamaru, it would be hard for her to forget hair like that. Her heart skipped a beat as the woman's expression quickly shifted from surprise, to hurt, to anger. Definitely not the face of someone fabricating. Ino grabbed onto Shikamaru out of instinct.

Kin smirked nastily, "You're not exactly memorable, sweetie."

Ino wanted to roll her eyes and tell her just how full of shit she was, but considering Kin was the only one bold enough to snark at an angry Sakura, she kept her mouth clamped shut. Her personality sucked, but even Ino had to admit the woman had a vagina of steel.

"I see," Sakura grinded her teeth as she spoke, turning sharp and striding toward the open window. Her back tensed as she paused. A cool breeze rustled through the thin curtains and she looked slightly over one shoulder, a mix between upset and smoldering. "Sorry for wasting your time."

And just like that, she vanished. Like a shadow in the night. Ino gulped, tapping Shikamaru's shoulder. "G--go close the window."

Shikamaru muttered something under his breath but went and did it anyway, making sure to triply check that weirdo was gone. He pursed his lips in thought, one hand scratching his imaginary beard. "You really don't know her?"

Ino animatedly shook her head, and waved her arms too for good measure. "Never seen her before in my life--ah, aside from that one time..."

"Yeah," Shikamaru scratched his head and sighed. He felt like he had a thousand pound backpack strapped to his back, he was so damn tired. "Let us know if any weird shit happens. I'm going to bed."

"Good night," Chouji yawned as he followed after his roommate. Only Kin lingered behind, an unreadable expression masking any emotions.

Ino wanted her to scurry on out as well, but didn't know how to say it politely, and she was now too tired to be rude. She yawned behind her hand and plopped backward onto her bed, fishing for the nightcap under her pillow. Kin folded her arms and frowned. "You really don't know her?"

That was odd, coming from Kin. "Should I?"

Kin shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. It made Ino uneasy seeing her act like that. "No, I guess not." An awkward silence passed between them. Eventually, the smaller woman sighed and left without another word. 

*

The incident weighed on Ino's conscience for a few days before inevitably fading into obscurity. She had to move on sometime and what better time than rush hour? About fifteen minutes to five they were flooded with drunken businessmen and graduate students from the local university. Not her kind of crowd at all. It took every ounce of patience not to bite someone's head off, but when another creep "accidentally" brushed his hand over her ass that thin thread of patience snapped. She slammed his fourth helping of beer on the table so hard it sloshed onto his shirt. "Do not. Touch. My ass."

He gaped at her wide-eyed and face flushed red from too much beer. Her nostrils flared as she stared right back. The room fell silent, and for a moment she hoped making an example out of this asshat would deter any more wandering hands. To her dismay, she miscalculated. This was happy hour, meaning there were an endless supply of perverts just like this one, and one of them from across the room jumped to his defense. "Hey, hey!" He bellowed, waving his drink at her and spilling liquid about the floor as he stumbled. "Hesh juss appreciatin' that fine assh!"

The room erupted into obnoxious cheers and whistles as the other drunks shouted in agreement. If anyone _did_ disagree, they didn't speak up. Ino bit her lip to keep from crying as the blood rushed to her face. She couldn't let her eyes tear up or she'd never forgive herself. She wanted so badly to scream back but they shouted her down and she felt too small. She couldn't even hear the bell above the entrance chime as someone else stepped in.

"Why is it so lively in here?" A gentle voice cut through the raucous laughter like a hot knife through butter. 

It felt like a classroom full of brats hootin' and hollerin' until the teacher walked in and everyone fell silent. Or, going by how pale their faces were, more like the grim reaper rolled in on a fog of black smoke, boney finger playing Russian roulette with their heads.

Ino gasped at the sight, definitely not expecting to see her so soon. "Sakura?"

The woman chuckled lightly as she smiled. It was as though that night never even happened. "At least you remember my name." Shit. That night totally happened. Emerald eyes surveyed the room, causing many to flinch and desperately try to hunker closer into their chairs.

One man shakily stood up, clutching a briefcase tightly to his chest, and tried to edge towards the door when another woman ducked inside, blocking his exit. This woman stood taller than Sakura, with pale blonde hair tied into two pigtails and a diamond tattoo on her forehead. The blonde woman smiled brightly. "Am I in your way?"

The man nearly fainted on the spot before meekly returning to his seat. It seemed...that these women had quite the reputation with _this_ crowd.

Sakura glanced at Ino then. "What's going on here?"

Ino didn't know whether to feel relieved or nervous. She sniffed, wiping both hands on her apron as she stared down at the floor. "N--nothing happened," she stammered, suddenly very self conscious and mentally kicking herself for covering for the old bastard.

The man she'd yelled at looked between them anxiously, beads of sweat rolling down his face and fogging up his glasses. He stood up shakily, "T--that's right--this woman berated me for no reason! Look what she did to my suit!" He cried, pointing at his beer stained shirt, then at her, "I... I demand to speak to your manager!"

His feigned indignance grew as did his voice, but the false accusations got the blood pumping in Ino's veins again. She puffed up her chest and shouted back, "Don't try to lie about it now! You touched my butt!"

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did! You all saw, didn't you?" She motioned to the room, but everyone suddenly became very fascinated by their food. She felt a flush of embarrassment as her gaze whipped about the room. "Anybody?"

The silence was deafening. Soft clicks echoed through the room and the man jabbing a finger at her flinched when he realized someone stood behind him. Sakura patted his shoulder gently, allowing her gloved hand to stay rested there. "Did you touch her?"

A brief pause, before he nervously shook his head, a giant bead of sweat slipping off the tip of his nose. "N--no, Miss Haruno, I would never..."

Still resting a hand on his shoulder, she turned to address the crowd, as cheerily as can be. "Everyone can attest to this man's innocence?"

A low murmur filled the air until the blonde woman still blocking their only exit chimed in. "If we find out he is lying, that would make you all his accomplices."

Ino blinked owlishly. She had never seen a group of people turn so quickly. Every able bodied hand pointed an accusing finger at the molester. Ino jumped and blinked again as a loud smack nearly burst her eardrums. Just like that, the pervert disappeared. Where the hell could he have gone?! She frantically searched the room until misty blue eyes lit up in shock. That man had his ass in the air, face squarely planted atop the wooden table. He didn't so much as twitch, remaining motionless as a statue with his nose bent against the hard surface. Her mouth fell open, not quite able to articulate anything as she just stared. Chouji's father peered out from the kitchen door just then with a questioning scowl, "What was that sound?" His squinty eyes landed on the customer currently planted into a table and his brows raised. "What's happened to him?"

Sakura grinned, hands behind her back. "He just fell right over! Must have had too much to drink. Right?"

Ino gulped as the deceptively violent woman smiled right at her. She turned to him and just nodded nervously. He nodded back slowly, as though he didn't quite buy that explanation, and quietly slipped back into the kitchen. 

 *

"Thank you so, so much," Ino grabbed Sakura's hands tightly between them, only for them to be yanked from her grip. Ino would have been offended, had she not remembered to be grateful. 

They were alone out back by the chained up scooter, as Kin busily mopped up the dining area. Sakura folded her arms, any trace of a fake smile wiped off the face of the planet. "I didn't do it for you, Ino-pig. Master Tsunade just so happened to be looking for someone in this area, and I happened to overhear something disgusting."

Ino guessed that was probably the busty older woman who was with her earlier--wait, "What did you call me?"

"Nothing, Ino-pig," Sakura smirked into her hand as the blonde visibly grew enraged. 

No one in the history of life ever had the gall to insult her to her face--and about her weight like that! She opened her mouth to protest, briefly thought about how much fatty foods she'd been chowing down on lately, glanced down to confirm she indeed still had a flat tummy, then glared back up. "How dare you, you--you!" Her eyes darted about looking for any kind of weakness. Hips, legs, arms? No, she was slender all around. Gorgeous face, clear skin, sparkling eyes, beautiful smile and a lovely voice to match--fuck! She was flawless! Hell, she wasn't even wearing that pea-vomit-green jacket. Just when Ino was about to abandon hope, the words slipped from her lips like a poisonous mist. "Wide forehead."

Sakura's lips twitched. "What was that?"

Looks like she hit a sore spot. "You heard me, forehead girl. I could run laps across that huge, shiny forehead--I mean, it's just so massive," she smirked back, poking the aforementioned forehead. That was _before_ she remembered this woman was a wall-kicking, face-destroying gorilla. She shrieked as a pair of arms suddenly grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her off the ground as though she were a ragdoll. She kicked and screamed to be let down, desperately trying to grab hold of something.

"Say you're sorry," Sakura growled, giving the blonde a couple spins to scare the shit out of her.

Ino squealed in fright, before bursting into fits of giggles, "Never!"

"Say it!"

"No, you started it," Ino gasped for breath, only to scream even louder as her body was tossed higher so the strong arms locked around her knees. Her balance went to shit and it felt like she'd fall backwards and break her neck--which really put the fear of death in her, and she screamed, "I'm sorry! I'm _sorry_!"

Sakura dropped her on her feet with a victorious smirk. Oh, how Ino wanted to smack the smug right out of her, but she was too busy heaving for breath and giggling. "Don't say that again."

"Say what," Ino gasped, one hand leaning against the brick wall. "That I'm sorry or that you have a massive--nonono--don't attack me! My heart can't take it." She curled her arms around herself as she backed away from the malicious pink haired villain. It was a tight space between their restaurant and the building right next to it, and the walls were absolute filth, but she allowed herself to rest her back against the opposite wall if just to catch her breath. That breath hitched the moment Sakura closed in, and just like that she was staring directly into mischievous green eyes. She had to remind herself that she was taller, but it just didn't feel that way. A sly smile played on the woman's lips. Ino tried to play it cool and smiled right back, though her fingers were trembling. "Wh--what are you looking at."

"You." The smooth voice made her body shiver and she couldn't help but turn away. That voice like silk danced in her ears, traveling through her body till it found her rapidly beating heart and squeezed. "Can I kiss you?"

"Huh?" Ino asked dumbly. She couldn't have heard that right.

"Can I kiss you?"

Oh god, she heard that right. Blood rushed to her face, leaving her legs weak and wobbly. Her throat dried up and suddenly it was hard to speak. What the actual hell? Of course not! They'd just met! Who asked that? But damn, she asked. No one ever asked permission before. Why was that so fucking sexy? Fuck, fuck, fuck, no, they just met. She couldn't. Ino swallowed painfully, suddenly feeling parched like a desert. She couldn't utter a word, but the silence was all Sakura needed to hear. The woman backed off, and just like that, it was like nothing ever happened. Ino breathed again, feeling light-headed, relieved, and somewhere deep, deep down, disappointed. Hesitantly, she glanced back at Sakura, expecting to see a dejected frown or maybe even anger. Rather than either of those, Sakura wore a pleasant smile. Not the deceptive one overshadowed with malice like earlier, but a soft, warm, genuine smile. Ino let her shoulders drop, not even realizing how tense she'd been until then, before a door opening interrupted the moment.

Chouji popped open the back door and glanced at them. "Ino, you're still out here? I've been looking all over for you."

Suddenly remembering it was still working hours, though the restaurant was closed, Ino flushed and scurried to get back inside, though she paused at the entrance to offer her mysterious savior a shy smile. "Really though, thank you... Make sure you come again, okay? Promise!"

Sakura watched her leave with a small smile, but as soon as the door clicked shut she buried her face in her hands and groaned loud. A whistle startled her and she realized too late her mentor was lounging just around the corner. She gasped, "Master! How long have you been hiding?"

Tsunade rounded the corner and pouted. "Since the beginning. And I was not _hiding_ , mind you." Sakura narrowed her eyes, but said no more. Her mentor could be scary when she wanted to be. Tsunade stretched, popping a few achey joints. "You didn't even introduce me."

Sakura snorted. She wasn't planning on introducing anyone anytime soon.

*

After fighting with Kin over who got to shower first, they'd settled on a rock paper scissors match, which she lost handily. Though she was pretty sure Kin cheated. Not sure how she cheated, just that she did. Ino glowered at her chipping nail polish, once a beautiful matte lavender but now dull and cracked--sort of like the pavement outside. If it were lavender. She tsked herself for forgetting to buy remover and vowed to go buy some tomorrow during lunch break or after work. She started chipping away at the flakes of polish with her nails as she hummed, mind going back to more important things...like Sakura...her eyes flew wide open. What? No, no, not forehead girl! Chouji's birthday! Right, right, what to buy?

She thought about it for a while, and actually thought he would look quite fetching in a pair of silver stud earrings. Not diamond studs, that would be too flashy--and too expensive. Just plain old silver. Not too much, but stylish. She grinned as a particularly large flake popped off. That was settled.

A hard knock wrapped at her door, Kin's rude ass signal that the shower was open, and Ino rushed to catch the brunette before she disappeared in her room. "Wait, Kin," she flew open the door to meet a bewildered Kun standing in the hall with nothing but a T-shirt and undies, water still dripping from her black hair.

"What do you want?" Kin scowled, eager to get back to her room. 

Ino chewed her lip a moment, hesitant to ask. On the one hand, Kin recommended an alright place before, but on the other hand, she hated asking this person for favors. But then she reminded herself: this was for Chouji. She took a deep breath, "Do you know of any decent jewelers? You know, in our price range?"

Kin cut her eyes, "Why are you asking me this?"

"Because," Ino lowered her voice, "You know this area better than I do..." It was true. Despite her living there little over a month, she didn't really have the money nor the free time to go exploring. She wished she had now though, because asking this woman for anything was a huge chore. 

The small woman made a show of thinking about it. "I know a place, but..." Ino waited. Kin grinned. "You sure you wanna go jewel shopping? Haven't you heard about that thief goin' around, murderin' people in jewelry stores?"

Ino blinked, trying to think back to any strange rumors. Murderers? That goth-like store she visited flashed in her memory and she snapped her fingers. "Tuxedo Mask?"

Kin frowned. "What?"

"I mean," Ino shook the image from her head. "Two-Tails? They didn't _murder_ anybody! I thought they were just...robbing places."

The smaller woman cackled, shaking her head so loose droplets of water sprayed Ino right in the face. "They haven't killed anyone yet, but trust me, it's gonna happen."

Ino rolled her eyes; did this chick really expect her to believe some notorious bank robber or whatever would have time to waste raiding some rinky dink ass store? Not even she had luck that bad. "Just tell me where it is, okay? I really need to..." she paused, looking about to make sure they were still alone before dropping to a low whisper, "I really need to buy that gift, so..."

"Yeah, yeah," Kin waved a hand dismissively after briefly doling out directions, then made for her own room, just glad to have this conversation over and done with.

Giddy with excitement, Ino rushed back to her room and went about scraping the rest of that pesky nail polish off. Then she remembered she needed to shower and hopped away to do that. By the time morning rolled over it was raining heavily outside. It would be hellish for her hair, but she figured she could brave the humidity for her friend. Saturday was quite literally right around the corner and she didn't have much more time to waste if she wanted to grab that gift in time. Ino worked extra hard that day, even doing some of Kin's chores, much to the raven-haired woman's delight, just to make the time go faster. She got off a bit earlier than usual and vanished outside before anyone even knew she'd clocked out and she dashed down the street. She'd broken in the black flats quite nicely so she could easily zip through the steady crowds, following Kin's sparse but accurate directions until she stumbled upon a nice looking shop. It was close to uptown, where the more classy spots were, so that did make her worry it might be outside of her price range. She slipped into the cool air-conditioned inside, taking in the sights. It really did look pretty upscale, not much unlike the stores she used to frequent with her Dad. Sparkling jewels sat beneath pristine glass cases, resting atop clean red cushions. She did worry about the prices, until she spotted quite a few fakes mixed in with the real articles, and her body relaxed. It _was_ a store for 'regular folk'. She chuckled at herself for worrying and waved at the polite lady behind the cashier. There were a few other people browsing around. Some nicely put together ladies and tired looking old men. One guy stood out in particular, because he was so freaking tall and bulky and shaggy and just--wow, he stood out. There was another individual next to him, equally as shaggy, yet at the same time stylish. They looked so weird together. Ino didn't even realize she was staring until the tall one turned around and their eyes met; she quickly looked away. 

Not too embarrassed, Ino scanned through the necklaces a while, just for shits and giggles, before moving on to the shiny earring displays. Sapphires, emeralds, and rubies competed for her attention, but those weren't what she came to ogle. As she slid further down one display case, she came upon rows upon rows of diamond studs, pearl studs, and precious metal. Blue eyes immediately snapped to a particular pair--silver, not too big, not too small, not too shiny but not at all dull. Right in the Goldilocks zone. Perfect. How was the price? No tag or sticker. Typical. She waved over the cashier lady, who seemed more than happy to snag a sale and came rushing over. "How much for these?" she aimed a delicate finger at the pair in question. The lady slipped behind the display, opening it up from behind and reaching for the right pair. It was...pricey, yes, but within her range of affordability. "This one, please," Ino smiled, following the lady to the counter to get ringed up. She expected to be out in a matter of minutes. She didn't expect someone to bump into her so hard she almost fell over. Ino glared, ready to chew out the asshole who practically tackled her when she saw Kin's ugly mug sneering up at her.

"Lunch break," Kin answered the unasked question. Her eyes drifted to the little red jewelry box being shuffled into a small black shopping back. "What'dya get?"

Ino kindly thanked the woman and took the bag, having to quickly raise it high to keep a certain someone from grabbing at it. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I would," Kin growled, trying to jump for the bag but not gaining much height. "I gotta see if what you got is better than what I got!"

Oh, that was cute. Why was Kin so weirdly competitive about the most random shit? Ino grinned and crumpled the black bag tightly in one fist, keeping it far from the shorter woman's reach. She stuck her tongue out, just about to give her not-friend a not-friendly retort when the lights just cut out. A few people screamed, Ino being one of them, as the room plunged into darkness. She felt Kin cling hard onto her arm and start to tug her toward the entrance, but there were too many people fighting to get to the same place first. Ino yelped loudly as something brushed against her backside and she reflexively jumped away, out of Kin's grasp. She panted loudly as she heard the doors rattling but clearly not opening. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see black shadows whisking about the room like bats in the night sky. "Kin?" she shouted, looking around but not seeing the darn woman--probably because she wore so much fucking black. Someone started screaming bloody murder and she shrunk back, bumping hard into a shorter person. At first, she thought it might be Kin--that little shrimp--but when she whipped around to grab their shoulders she swore this person's eyes glowed in the dark like neon lights. Blue green like a foggy lagoon, definitely not Kin. The person stared back at her, wide-eyed and shocked, and before she knew it she was thrown across the room. She remembered a sharp pain as her head and back smashed against something hard, before finally blacking out.

*

Bright lights. The smell of antiseptic fluids.

Everything looked white and fuzzy and...probably really fucking sterile. Ino knew she was in a hospital bed the moment she opened her eyes, vision amazingly blurry as pain throbbed through her skull. She felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to her spinal cord. There were a few figures hovering over her, but she couldn't for the life of her make out any faces. She figured the black-colored pineapple thing was probably Shikamaru. "How long have I been out?" is what she wanted to ask, but all that came out was ugly croaking.

Presumed-Shikamaru disappeared for a moment, before reappearing with a cup of water. He did something and suddenly her bed was moving so she was more or less sitting up. Her whole body ached. What a shit life. She gratefully sipped from the paper cup offered, which did soothe her throat enough to let her speak. "How long have I been out?" Memories of panic in the jewelry store flooded her senses and she was suddenly very pissed off at her shit-stained luck. Of all the fancy jewelry stores in uptown Konoha that fatherfucker could have robbed it _had_ to be the one she was at? At that very fucking moment? What were the chances-- _seriously_?

"Not even a day," Shikamaru spoke softly, thank goodness. 

She blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision, but the blurriness persisted. Oh well. She could hear someone shuffling on the other side of the bed, then the crunch of chips. That had to be Chouji. "Oh man, we were so worried about you! I couldn't even eat," he muttered, stuffing three more chips into his mouth. Ino was glad he could eat again, then, though she wished he picked a quieter snack. "Mom and Dad are gonna be here soon. You don't have an insurance card, do you?"

Insurance was the last thing she wanted to think about. Ino sipped some more water and sighed. "I don't have one..."

"Don't worry about it," said Shikamaru with a slight glower. He seemed to be checking many things at once and she couldn't bother to keep track. 

Ino moaned a bit, trying to turn her head away from all the chip-munching but finding her neck much too sore to do so. Actually, now that her brain was functioning, how did these two get to her so quick? Where was Kin? Weren't family members the only people allowed hospital visits to critically wounded? Was she critically wounded? Oh shit, she couldn't feel her toes. There were too many questions tongue tying her brain so only groans came out, which worried her companions more and more. At least her vision started clearing a bit. Another figure entered the room, this one tall and pretty with age. Ino recognized her instantly as the woman who accompanied Sakura the other day, and she figured the lady probably pulled some strings to get her friends in there. That's one question answered. "Toes," she grumbled weakly as Tsunade rounded her bedside, shooing the boys away. 

"Can you wiggle your toes?" Tsunade asked with some light amusement to her voice. 

Ino wrinkled her nose and tried her best to wiggle them...and it worked. They wiggled just fine. She just couldn't feel them. The doctor didn't seem too worried though so she chose not to worry either.

Tsunade pulled out a chart from seemingly nowhere and proceeded in a very professional fashion, "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'd been through a carwash. Okay, I guess," Ino coughed a bit. Another question plagued her mind, and her hands wrung together in worry. "Where's Kin?"

Tsunade raised a brow, to which Shikamaru answered, "She's our coworker." He shifted his gaze to Ino with a troubled expression on his face. "You mean she was with you at the time?"

Ino frowned, sitting up further. "She was... Why, is she not here? Did she go back without me?!" She wouldn't put it past the little troll to not even check up on someone in the fucking hospital.

Shikamaru and Chouji exchanged a look that sent chills down her spine. "Where is she?" Then the words she'd scoffed at filled her ears.

_"They haven't killed anyone yet, but trust me, it's gonna happen."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good evening all. I had a difficult time writing this chapter, partly because a bad baby deleted a huge chunk of it and it had to be rewritten, and partly because I literally finger typed the whole thing from a phone. :| 
> 
> Either way, thank you all so much for reading and a special thanks for the wonderful comments.


	4. Nothing sacred within these walls

Kin's eyes fluttered open, greeted by a plain, unfamiliar ceiling. At first, she could not move, only to realize seconds later she had been quite thoroughly buried under a thick duvet and laid flat against the floor. On a futon. This definitely was not Akimichi's. An easy quiet filled the room with only the chirping of birds and bugs to meet her ears. She sat up, wincing at the terrible pain shooting down her left arm. It didn't feel broken or anything, just incredibly sore. Inside the room smelled of wood and fabric softener, and the space, though tiny, appeared absolutely immaculate. She struggled to remember how in the world she got there, only to draw blanks. Up until she slugged someone in the jewelry shop amidst disorienting darkness, she couldn't remember anything else. Normally such a memory would be satisfying, but... She couldn't take any satisfaction in punching someone if she didn't even know _who_ she punched.

A wave of nausea rolled in as she staggered to her feet, determined to find out who had the balls and/or vagina to fucking kidnap her ass. She didn't give a fuck if it were some Two-Tails, an insane Akatsuki cultist, or the boogie man, someone was getting their ass beat. She slid open the paper door and padded down the tatami floors, looking for any sign of life. The architecture of this place was just plain strange; everything was made out of paper and wood, with the exception of a few stone pieces here and there. If there were still traditional homes like this anywhere in the city she felt pretty sure she'd know about them by now. She knew pretty much every place there was to know in the city, so this alarmed her mildly. A strong floral scent hit her before the sights did, as she made her way to a well-kept garden. A high dark wood privacy fence closed off the property, but beyond them she could see numerous tree tops filled to the brim with blooming purple plum flowers. The garden itself mostly freshly cut grass, sporadic groupings of bamboo jutting up from the ground and contained by rings of dark stones, and a rather large koi pond off-center with bamboo fixtures and a dark stone path leading up to it from the wooden stoop of the hallway. Kin stared, having not seen such beauty in simplicity in all her life. This was something she'd seen plenty of times in magazines and advertisements to hot springs and shit but it truly did look magnificent in real life. So much so that she didn't notice the person now standing in from of her until they snorted rather loudly, startling the daylight out of her. Kin yelped and jumped back a little, arms up and ready to defend despite the pain, when she saw a kid who appeared more or less her age or younger. Well...not "kid," more like a young man. A young man with a disdainful scowl marring his simple features, small eyebrows furrowed together and wrinkling his forehead. Dark bluish gray hair cut in an asymmetric bowl cut that brushed his shoulders. The strangest of all was probably his dress. If she had to guess, this guy may have been a monk or a priest, because no one would wear such outdated clothing these days unless they were the dorkiest of cosplayers. 

 Kin met his scowl with one of her own, equally as sour, but kept her guard up. "Who the hell are you? Why am I here?"

 The young man didn't seem perturbed at all by her rudeness, rather he seemed strangely relieved and annoyed at the same time if...that were possible. He stood with his arms to his sides, cloaked completely in unnecessarily long sleeves, which did nothing to calm her nerves because anything could be hiding in there. Swiftly, he spun around and began padding away, footsteps loud against the wooden floor.

 Blinking, Kin stammered at him to wait, but followed without thinking. Who did this little shit think he was?! He owed her answers, damn it! As she followed heavily behind, her mind worked to memorize their pathway, in case she needed to find her way back... who knows, right? They eventually came upon what looked like a rather modern kitchen, though the wooden furniture and simple light brown and white colors ensured the space didn't look out of place compared to the rest of the "house" (if she could call it a house, this place seemed fucking massive). A small round table accompanied by two chairs stood near the kitchen counter separating them from the appliances, and he motioned for her to take a seat. She refused of course, opting instead to eye him suspiciously. He simply shrugged, and went about heating water over a gas stove. 

 It felt awkward now, shifting in this unfamiliar room from foot to foot, watching this guy not much taller than herself apparently making tea. But this all really begged the question. "Seriously, what the fuck am I doing here? I gotta get home..." _Home._  Akimichi's place had always been home, but never in her life had she vocalized the sentiment. 

The man glanced over his shoulder with another scowl, and she briefly wondered if his face was actually stuck that way. "Don't ask me. I didn't bring you here."

"What do you mean you didn't bring me here? Then who did?!" she demanded, voice rising into a high pitch screech. 

He flinched at her sudden volume, but otherwise didn't appear too perturbed. "Try to keep it down," he mumbled, having seeped the cheap green tea to his satisfaction, and placing four cups on a tray and carrying it to the table. He set it down and once again motioned for her to sit, which she complied after much hesitance. He took the second chair across from her and offered a cup, which she took with obvious distrust in her eyes. "I didn't poison it," he snorted with a roll of his eyes, somehow grabbing a cup for himself despite the ridiculously long sleeves covering his hands. How the fuck did he manage to do anything like that, now that she thought about it...

Kin glanced down at the steaming cup of dark green liquid. "No milk and sugar? I can't drink this shit." 

The man almost spit his tea all about the table, and he stared wide-eyed in shock. "Why the fuck would you put milk in tea? That's disgusting."

She glared in return. "Tea without milk is disgusting. Don't tell me you don't have milk."

"No, I don't," he bit back, apparently deeply offended at the very notion. He sipped his tea to try and calm down a bit before responding again, "There is sugar in a jar near the fridge. Get it yourself." Because he certainly would not lift a finger to desecrate green tea like that.

Kin glowered down at her cup again. Why bother? This shit was probably poisoned, and she didn't owe politeness to this kidnapper (or at the very least, accomplice to a kidnapper). Then her stomach growled. And she realized she was very, very hungry. How had she ignored this gaping, gnawing, debilitating hunger up until this point?! Maybe she was too pissed to notice, but now she was leaping to get some sugar in this plain ass tea. "Shit, shit, shit," she grumbled under her breath, stirring in absurd spoonfuls into her cup and swirling it around with a spoon she found conveniently near the sugar jar. "I'm so fucking hungry I think I'm going to pass out." She hastily gulped down the tea, still steaming hot but not caring how it burned her throat. The hot liquid moved through her system swiftly quelling the hunger, if only temporarily. Her hands trembled lightly, a pretty good indicator that if she didn't get some actual food in her system, she'd probably actually pass out. The thought of that sent her into a mild panic--because the last time she passed out she woke up in an unfamiliar place with a rude-ass monk who refused to give her answers, damn it! With no regard for the other person in the room, she threw open the fridge looking for anything edible, any suspicions of poisoned foods thrown out the window in her quest for sustenance. 

He didn't seem to care anyway, as he didn't even look her way. Just sat there sipping his nasty tea, looking strangely calm and detached.

Kin rummaged around until she found a container full of strawberries and blueberries and lunged for them, tearing off the lids and shoveling a few down without washing them. She ate until the trembling subsided, feeling the mixture of coldness from the fruit and the hot tea rumbling in her stomach. She'd probably regret this later, but for now, she just needed to eat. A bit calmer then, she set the empty containers down on the counter and shut the fridge door. Fruit wouldn't do much either, but it'd have to do for now. Hesitantly, Kin made her way back to the table and slowly sat down. She'd never openly pigged out in front of someone before, and bizarre as it may seem, she now felt a little embarrassed. She nervously played with her fingers between her knees under the table, wearily glancing at the man still sipping tea with his eyes closed like he was really enjoying the peace and quiet. "So...who brought me here?"

He paused, cup raised to his lips but not touching the fluid within. His eyes opened and she noticed they were actually a very pleasant, warm brown. Slanted and narrow like those traditionally dressed ladies in those magazines. Then she realized the weirdness of comparing him to ladies in magazines and stopped right there. "If I had to guess," he spoke slowly, cup still raised to his lips, "Probably _that woman_."

Okay, that didn't answer dick. She opened her mouth to relay as much, when a soft chuckle startle the shit out of her. How many people were going to randomly pop up and fucking freak her out in one day?! She spun around to see a rather tall, skinny blonde lady leaning against the entryway with an amused look on her face. Pale blonde hair pulled back behind her in a hair tie, pointed onyx eyes with long lashes, thin lips painted red and wearing a plain grey shirt and jeans. "If I have to guess," Kin growled lowly, "It was probably you, wasn't it?"

The lady smiled brightly. "Yes."

The young man across her took another sip, and they all fell into silence. One minute passed. Then two.

"Yes?" Kin repeated.

"Yes." 

One minute passed. Then two.

Kin shot up from her chair, stalking up to the lady and swiftly slapping her across the face. The sound rang loud through the room before silence settled in again; a tense, unsettling silence. The woman remained leaned casually against the frame with her arms folded, head turned and cheek quickly reddening from the harsh impact. When she did look back down at the ferocious little girl, she smiled lightly, causing the black-haired woman to bristle as though expecting some sort of retaliation. Her thin red lips pulled into a wider smile. "If I had to guess, I deserved that, didn't I?"

 "You did," replied the man still seated at the table.

These people were...weirdly laid back, to say the least of it. Kin's hand stung and the screaming pain shooting up her arm made her realize she'd stupidly used her injured arm. Damn it all, it fucking _hurt_!! But she grit her teeth and bore the pain, not wanting to appear weak in front of them. She stepped back as the woman suddenly lifted off the door frame, though remained rooted to the spot. Kin growled, "I want to go home."

"I can't let you do that, I'm afraid," the woman sauntered over to the chair Kin unwittingly knocked over, set it upright and sat down. She grabbed one of the remaining two cups and took a long gulp. 

Kin eyed the fourth cup and quietly wondered who that might be for. Would another person pop up out of nowhere to scare the shit out of her today? She really hoped not. She really hoped the guy was just a really thirsty fuck who normally drank two cups. He did indeed finish his tea, but made no move to grab the fourth cup. Instead, he headed to the sink to wash his cup and set it in the dish drainer to dry. Then went about rummaging in the fridge for a few eggs, butter, and a few other things. She waited for him to turn around and say something. But that didn't happen. Kin stared a hole into the back of the blonde woman's head, expecting her to say something. Anything. Nothing. They were acting as though she weren't even there and that was really beginning to grate her nerves to dust. She angrily stalked to the now empty chair across the strange woman and sat heavily, making a point to rattle the table a bit as she did so, and glared. "What do you mean you _can't let me_. Who the fuck do you think you are?" The woman glanced at her over the rim of her cup with the most amused glint in her eye like this was all some elaborate fucking joke and Kin figured she had enough of that shit. She grabbed the fourth cup and throw it against the far wall, shattering it to pieces and splashing liquid all about the wooden floor. The amusement on the woman's face vanished, replaced by an unreadable expression. Kin gleaned some small sense of victory, even if it came with a side of heavy unease. "I'm. Going. Home. Don't _fuck_ with me."

The woman set her cup down gently, body visibly tensed with restrained violence. Her onyx eyes turned stone cold, but she still spoke with a lightness that belied this newfound tension. "I assure you, I am not fucking with you. I simply can not let you leave." She paused then, nails tapping thoughtfully against the ceramic walls of the little teacup. "I understand you are upset. You are confused. However," her voice lowered, fingers seized their tapping, wrapping tightly around the ceramic, "Such behavior will not be tolerated any further. Do you understand?"

It was not a question, it was an order. Kin swallowed thick, trying not to bring up the meager meal she'd scraped together earlier. These people could be sociopathic serial killers for all she knew--or traffickers--or part of the mafia--fuck she didn't fucking know. They definitely were not ordinary people though, and she couldn't tell if it were instinct or intuition telling her to stand down, but she did. She forced her shoulders to drop and her legs to stop wobbling pathetically under the table. She swallowed again and breathed deeply. They couldn't possibly keep her here, she thought. They'd have to chain her down, or lock her away, and that sure as shit would not be happening if she could help it. If she calmed down a bit, went with the flow, an opportunity would eventually arise. She just needed to be patient. Wait till their guards were down. These thoughts did help to calm her considerably and her own tension ebbed away. She sighed loud and dramatic, "Fine. Fine. At least tell me who you are...Even fake names would do. I just want to know what kind of psychos I'm dealing with, here."

The woman relaxed as well, and smiled. "You can call me Yugito. It is my real name," she paused, glancing at the young man beyond the counter, still busying himself over a hot stove. The smell of cooking eggs and onions began to permeate the room, making her hungry as well. "His name is Sora. He has been treating you well, I hope."

The young man, Sora, glared over his shoulder. "Shut up..."

Yugito laughed lightly, redirecting her soft gaze to the girl seated across from her. "What is your name?"

Kin glowered under her lashes and pouted. "You kidnapped me, won't let me leave, and you don't even know who I am? What the fuck..."

The woman's smile turned lopsided, sympathetic, as she nodded slowly. "I know it is confusing, but please bear with me me." She took another sip of her tea, fingers once again idly tapping. "Your name?"

"...Kin."

"Kin," repeated Yugito, eyes suddenly bright. She leaned across the table, "That's a very pretty name. What grade are you?"

Blinking at the sudden question, Kin had to work her mind a bit to realize this person had just made a very wrong assumption. "I'm not in school," she snapped, annoyed to be mistaken for a middle/high schooler. Which happened annoyingly often. "I'm twenty four. I'm not a kid."

"Oh," Yugito paused, slowly sinking back into her chair. 

*

They were alone on most days, Kin and Sora. Kin still had not found out who that fourth cup was meant for. Yugito rarely visited, and not many people even knew or remembered Fire Temple still sat atop the old seaside hill. Plum blossom trees littered the hill like a miniature forest, periodically showering stone-cobbled roads with beautiful snow white petals. Sora's nose had long forgotten the fragrance, so he could not understand his prisoner's constant whining and complaining about the smell. Kin wondered why they were even flowering so much considering they were inching closer and closer towards autumn. Shouldn't these trees be rotting right about now? She swore they were going to make her develop allergies or something. She sat atop the wooden stoop overlooking the small garden, listening to the noisy cicada screeching and chirping. It was hot as hell, yet she had nothing to wear day in and day out but her black tank top and cargo pants. She had to wash and dry her one pair or underwear every day, but at least they had the decency to let her shower and brush her teeth. In the staggering two weeks she'd been held hostage there, she'd learned literally nothing useful, and worse yet, bodged no less than five escape attempts. Despite the fact the mysterious blonde woman was gone most of the time, and Sora was busily doing chores most every day, he still somehow managed to detect every single time she tried to scale the fence, slip through the front gates, even tried climbing atop the roof at one point... _that_ time, he took a garden hose and _sprayed her down_ , the insufferable asshole. It felt like he had built-in Kindar so no matter where they were in the house, he just knew when she made a break for it. Though skinny and not too strong, he knew a lot of fancy kung fu moves or some shit because he'd have her spinning on the ground in a split second the moment she threw a punch.

Kin sat with one leg outstretched in the grass and the other drawn up to her chest, so she could rest her arm on one knee, and her chin on that arm. So what else had she learned? She learned quickly there were no phones in the temple. She also learned Sora was a meticulous little shit, obsessed with cooking and cleaning and general housework. She didn't understand why he valued this temple so much, being that he was the only one running it and as far as she could tell, no one even visited. How did he even make money to live? Did Yugito provide him funds? Was Yugito his mother? She looked much too young. Were they brother and sister? They didn't look anything alike. They could have been adopted... she shook her head. Speculating did nothing, she needed to focus on what she _knew_. There were odd periods in the day when Sora would just...disappear for a while, then pop up again randomly. The monk(" _in-training"_ ) didn't follow any schedule or pattern, so it was hard to tell when he would be "out". If she could figure out what the hell he was doing during these times, maybe she could better time her escapes. She worked it over in her mind before nodding to herself and setting about finding the little fucker. 

 It was around noon when she found him busily scrubbing the already pristine kitchen floor. The same spot, she noticed, that she had smashed the teacup the first day she'd awoken there (Yugito forced her to clean up _that_ mess, to her bitter recollection). Whether it was mere coincidence, or if she had awoken some OCD demon sleeping deep within him, she didn't know and didn't care. There was a tray of food sitting lonely atop the countertop. A meager bowl of rice and platter of broiled fish fillet. She could tell it was not for her, nor for him. "Anymore leftovers in the fridge?" she muttered. She wasn't particularly hungry, but she needed an excuse to be in the kitchen watching him.

 Sora leaned back on his heels, knelt on his knees. A light sheen of sweat coated his face and neck, causing strands of bluegrey hair to stick in odd places. "Fried eggplant, rice, porridge, and potato stew. Take your pick."

"Thanks." They didn't talk much, if just to keep the peace. They both had foul mouths and fouler attitudes and long ago came to a silent agreement to talk as little as possible. She warmed up a small portion of potato stew, sat at the table and ate slowly, pretending not to stare. He moved quickly, not bothering to clean the area around her feet, before gathering his supplies and moving into another room. He re-emerged, took up the tray of food from the counter, and left again. She could still hear him padding around, so she quietly set down her spoon and followed. 

 Looks like it was one of those times. What a lucky coincidence. She moved stealthily behind him, always a full room behind, as they weaved through the temple. She half-wondered if he knew she was following and was just leading her around to nowhere, or didn't give a shit. At this point, however, she was really starting to feel lost. Just when she was about to call it quits, the padding stopped. She sidled the wall to listen around the corner. She peeked. A tall shoji door remained slid open. Sora sat before an enormous oak-wood dresser; it had one set of drawers at the bottom, and the rest were like a large double-doored closet. The dim light of the room revealed various other furniture pieces and artifacts strewn about the little area, up against the walls. It looked like a storage room. Not even aware of her own movements, Kin silently moved in, half-hiding behind the double-layered shoji doors. 

 Sora knocked twice, very lightly, against the dresser doors. He mumbled a few words, reached up for the knob and pulled it open. 

 It was empty.

Kin pursed her lips, trying to work out what the hell she was looking at. What could she possibly make of this? That Sora was schizophrenic, maybe. She strained to hear his voice as he muttered some more. No, this voice was different. It sounded like someone else entirely. But clearly, there was no one else in the room. The thought that Sora was _indeed_  conversing with himself, using two different voices, sent a chill down her spine. Unsettled couldn't begin to describe the unease settling in the pit of her stomach. Kin unconsciously stepped closer into the room, not realizing she'd cast a long shadow until Sora visibly flinched. He jolted to his feet in panic and spun around, eyes wide in shock, totally off-guard in a way she'd never seen before. "What are you doing here?" he shouted much louder than necessary, alarming the both of them.

If he weren't so frazzled, he may have sent her packing already, but luckily for Kin, he was slow to react when she forced her way in. Since she'd been caught already, she may as well unravel this mystery. Having spent two agonizing weeks there, she felt entitled to learn some of their stupid secrets. She brushed past him, eyes immediately landing in the closet that really shouldn't be there, but in the moment she couldn't tell why. The tray of food Sora brought in rested on the floor before this...thing. It looked like a mannequin head adorned with a dusty white wig. It was hard to make out in the poor lighting, but what she saw sufficiently creeped her right the fuck out. She turned to a stunned Sora with a disgusted turned up lip, "You're sick, you know that? What the fuck, Sora. What the fuck."

Sora stood there motionless, eyes wide and mouth opening and closing but no words worked their way out. Probably too ashamed of his little hobby to defend himself, she figured.

"I knew you didn't have any friends, but a mannequin? That's _creepy_ , man," she continued, growing more and more animated the more creeped out she got.

"What your fucking mouth, bitch. I ain't no mannequin."

"Oh, shut _up_ \--" she stopped mid-rant, did a double-take--did that thing just speak? She blinked down at the previously inanimate object, now glaring up at her with a fiery anger. No, no, no. That's not a disembodied head. It's probably....a disembodied fucking head.

Her breath hitched in her throat as the head bared its teeth. Deep purple colored eyes glazed over in rage as it spat. "What are you looking at? You want a piece of me? Huh?!"

Kin was a creature of instinct. Her leg pulled back and kicked, sending the disembodied head flying into a vase--then the fact that her bare foot came into contact with a human head sent her brain into a frenzied state of mania and she ran from the room like a bat out of hell, a high-pitched, glass-shattering scream releasing violently from her lungs as her legs flew from room to room. Her vision was literally flashes of white and it was a minor miracle she hadn't bashed into any walls or doors. Instead she bashed into a sturdy frame of a tall woman, who swiftly grabbed her shoulders and held her steady as she flailed and screamed like a rabid animal. The person shook her sharply, barking orders to calm down, to breathe. The voice eventually penetrated her senses, and the white dulled, filtering in pale colors. Her vision blurred and her legs buckled, but she didn't pass out, and the person pulled her to them. "Breathe, shhh, breathe," they said.

*

Kin must have passed out at some point, because her next conscious thought was that somehow she winded up pressed into someone's side, long fingers wrapped gently around her waist. They were sitting seiza style (though Kin's legs were more or less sloppily splayed along the floor beneath her), in a square room devoid of furnishing. Across them sat Sora, so Kin surmised the person cradling her must be Yugito, and the thing sitting in Sora's lap glaring daggers was... Her heart leapt to her throat and she unconsciously wrapped both arms around Yugito and buried herself against the woman, eyes locked with angry purple ones across the room. "What the fuck, Sora, throw that shit away!! What the fuck!!"

"Who you calling shit?!" the head wailed, looking like it was ready to launch itself at her had Sora not had both hands planted firmly along its jawlines. 

"Calm down, Hidan. You don't want to get locked away again, do you?" Yugito sighed, using her free hand to rub at her aching temples. She could feel Kin's erratic breathing against her side and sighed again. "Kin, I'm going to need you to settle down a bit. Please."

Kin looked up to the blonde, positively freaked out and--in that moment--looking very much like a frightened middle-schooler. "Are you being serious right now? It's a head, what the fuck, woman, do you not see this?"

 "I know," Yugito paused, rubbed the small woman's side in an awkward attempt to be soothing. Kin's iron grip around her rib cage was slowly but surely cutting off her airflow. "This is...Sora, please explain."

"Yes, Sora, please explain the fucking disembodied mannequin head to the dumbass bimbo, Sora," the head mocked in a terrible impression of Yugito's voice.

Sora sighed, bopped the head lightly with his fist and earning a small string of curses. "There isn't much to explain. It's exactly what it looks like. I'm not a doctor, I can't explain how this works."

"Oh, that explained a lot, dumbass," Hidan hissed, clearly having not learned from the last bop on the crown. 

The more she looked at it, listened to it, the more Kin's mind compartmentalized it. So what if it was...unnatural? It didn't exactly pose a threat. The shiny black eye Hidan sported reminded her that in fact she posed a much greater threat to this thing than it did to her, and that did wonders to soothe her nerves. She hesitantly unwrapped herself from Yugito, who was at this point a nice hue of blue, and sat properly despite the stinging in her arm and legs. "Okay," she started lowly, feeling her own breathing begin to slow and settle. "Okay, I can deal with this...I guess..."

The air around the room eased into a more comfortable silence as the four of them seemed to come to a mutual agreement. No more freaking out. She still wondered how in the world these people came into possession of a human head (at least, she assumed it to be human?), but on some level she didn't really want to know. Not that badly, anyway. Adrenaline gone, her muscles and bones felt like jelly and her stomach twitched from hunger and anxiety. Yugito coughed to clear the air and turned to Kin with a small smile. "Ah, that reminds me. I have some things for you." Kin watched her with mild suspicion, and tried to follow when the woman stood, but her legs just wouldn't cooperate. Yugito glanced down at her then, working something through her head before she suddenly swooped down and pulled Kin to her feet. Kin stumbled forward into her chest with an 'eep', hands clawing at the taller woman's shoulders to keep from falling. Yugito chuckled, "Legs fell asleep on you?"

Kin grunted but didn't say anything. This whole day was fucking her over a table and she had enough. "I just want to sleep." Her stomach growled loudly then, embarrassing her further. "I'm hungry and I want to sleep, damn it."

"Hey, I'm hungry too!" Hidan kicked up a fuss, somehow managing to squirm around in Sora's lap and the sight of it made Kin a little ill.

*

That night, Yugito invaded Kin's (temporary) room without so much as knocking. The very same room Kin woke up in that first day, she'd slept in alone every night, and until then the other two had the decency to at least let her have some privacy there. Kin shot up from the futon to glare red-eyed and tired as she was, as the woman carrying a large plastic shopping bag. Yugito dropped the bag to the floor and stooped at Kin's bedside, seemingly animated to show off the goods. Kin noticed the woman had rather long, sharp-looking finger nails, a detail she hadn't noticed before, as the blonde tore into the bag, pulling out packets of underwear. Kin's eyes lit up then as well and the excitement became infectious. She snatched up the bag and ripped through the plastic barrier. "Oh my god you got me underwear," were her exact words, as though she'd just been gifted an elixir of life. 

Yugito laughed lightly, pulling some more items from the bag. A big old pack of medium sized winged pads and another pack of tampons. She waved them mischievously, "So you don't have to use up all our toilet paper."

Kin's smile dropped as her face burned bright red and she snatched the items away, hiding them behind her back as though that meant anything. "H--how did you--"

"Don't worry about it," Yugito sing-songed playfully, reaching into the magical bag once again and dragging out various articles of clothing. "I don't know what you like, but judging from what you're wearing now, I figured we have similar tastes. I think I got your sizes right."

Black and purple shirts, shorts, and even a couple jean jackets mixed in splayed across the tatami flooring like a pile of dirty laundry. It was....a nice sentiment, but Kin could not forget the fact that she was being held here against her will, and that she should be suspicious at every gesture of good will. Yugito didn't have to go out of her way to gather these things for her, but at the same time, this could all just be another tactic to gain her trust. Make her let her guard down to do who knew what. Maybe Kin would someday wake up to find herself nothing but a pretty little head with no body. Mixed feelings of distrust and something else dampened her excitement, until she was staring into the pile lost in forlorn thoughts. She thought of the Akimichi couple, bickering in the kitchen over whose turn it was to go out and pay the light bill. She thought about the annoying cackle of customers that flooded the restaurant every lunch hour, and the lazy Shikamaru struggling to keep up with the demand and maintain a slovenly pace. She thought of Ino shouting at her to stop hogging the shower, banging the bathroom door while Kin ignored her and purposely stayed in another five minutes just for spite. 

Yugito's chattering slowly faded into the distance as Kin found herself wondering how everyone was getting on back home. Strange thoughts crossed her mind. It had been two weeks, no call, no show.

Was Ino okay? 

Did they call the police?

Were they looking for Kin at all?

_Did they miss her?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It actually took me longer to decide which branch of the story to pick up from than it did to write this chapter. Hehe but this was very fun to write. I honestly love all these characters and so putting them in these situations just kinda...made me laugh. :) There is a lot more cursing in this chapter than previous ones, I think...that just kind of naturally arose, apologies for that!


	5. Stranger Danger

Kin missed the days when it was just "Kin and Sora". With the proverbial cat out of the bag, Hidan enjoyed the freedom he once had before she "moved in". It must have been awful being shoved away in a closet for two weeks, and she almost sympathized. Until he called her a wrinkled cunt. Then she shoved him right back into that closet. He cried for hours and it was glorious. About three days in, she'd dropped all fear of the abominable creature and came to dislike him as a person, just like she disliked everyone else. Hidan seemed to dislike her as well, so it all worked out. At the moment, the three were at the kitchen table eating dinner. Yugito had been gone four days straight, so Kin had only the boys for company, and as much as the head annoyed her, he had his perks. This night, Hidan "sat" toward the edge to Sora's left, occasionally snapping up the food the little monk-in-training offered, another visual that took a while to get used to. Kin speared some broccoli with her fork and held it to her nose, examining it. "So where does all that food go?" Sora glanced up mid-chew with a raised brow, to which she rolled her eyes and jerked her fork at the talking head. "Not you, dumbass. That thing."

"I told you to watch what you say when you're speaking to me, you fucking cow," Hidan snarled in an obvious attempt to dodge the question.

Kin scoffed. "Does it magically teleport to your body somewhere? Where is your body, anyway?"

Sora's narrow eyes flicked to Hidan then, not bothering to hide his own curiosity and it dawned on Kin that he probably never even bothered to ask. Hidan gritted his teeth, and at first Kin thought he would start dodging again, but to her surprise he admitted, "Probably rotting in a sewer somewhere."

The two blinked at the bizarre answer, but really, nothing should be too surprising at that point. Sora swallowed his bite and sighed, tilting a glass of water to his lips. "I expected something stupid, and you did not disappoint."

That seemed to set off a fuse or two, because Hidan's eyes lit up in perverse anger. "Yeah, well you should be disappointed. If it weren't decomposing, you'd be spinning on my dick right now." Water sprayed all over the table. Sora stared, horrified, face flushed obscenely and Kin nearly fell from her chair in manic cackling. Here it was! Her one source of entertainment in this shithole.

"What's wrong with you?" Sora coughed, having nearly choked from that bout of rampant stupidity. 

"Me? You're the one giving me googly eyes all day, every day. I know I'm fine, but dayum," Hidan made a disgusted face, and for a moment Kin wondered if he was unaware just how gay he himself sounded. The fuck? To her surprise, the head looked to her, expression now ghastly. "Know how many nights I couldn't sleep, scared shitless I'd wake up one day to this fairy skull fucking me?" Cue more spraying.

Kin sneered, "You do have a pretty mouth."

"Mouth? Uh, do you not see these gorgeous eye sockets? Faggots love em."

Kin scoffed again, then froze upon seeing Sora's shocked face, burning red from ear to ear. She stared, then burst out laughing again, "You should see...your face!" She wiped the tears rolling down her fat cheeks as she laughed and laughed.

Sora looked like he straight up wanted to disappear. "You people are filthy," he mumbled under his breath, quickly packing up his utensils and dishes because he was done with this conversation.

Hidan watched him remove himself from the table with an amused smirk. "Don't forget hair night."

Sora glared at him briefly before disappearing behind the kitchen sink. Kin tilted her head, "What's hair night?"

"That brat washes my hair for me... It's dusty as fuck from that closet, thanks to you." Kin snorted at that, but Hidan continued, this time a bit conspiratorially, "You wouldn't believe this, but the shitty brat actually wears the towel up to his nipples. What a bitch." A loud crash startled them. Kin tiptoed to peek over the counter and saw Sora on the floor, cradling his elbow. Hidan, unable to see anything from his vantage point, called out, "You didn't slip and break your neck, did you, princess?"

Kin choked. That was one of many nicknames the detached head had for the little prude, and although laced with homophobia, this one was her favorite. Before she could open her mouth to rub in the salt, a figure flew past her head right over the counter. She had to blink twice to clear her vision and turned to find the two grown men brawling, dust cloud and everything. She didn't think it possible considering one of them barely had a neck to stand on, much less limbs to fight with, but they were making the impossible possible. Kin scooted to the safety of the fridge area once the table broke. That was probably enough teasing for one night.

*

"I'm burying you tomorrow," Sora growled, massaging shampoo into Hidan's scalp with much more force than necessary. 

The head laughed, "Yeah right."

"You don't think I'd do it?"

"Jokes aside," the laughter died down as shampoo suds trickled down his chin, threatening to slip up his nose with each breath. "How long is she staying here? She wants to go home, let her go."

Sora paused to reach for the wash bucket, dumping it unceremoniously all over the head and inwardly smirking at the angry sputters. Truth be told, he didn't have an answer for that. Yugito would decide when it was safe to return the girl and that could be months from now. Before he could formulate an answer, a sharp crash sounded loudly from the corridor, making them jump. A rush of adrenaline pumped through Sora's veins as he lept for the washroom door--nearly slipping to his death on wet tiles--then paused at Hidan's sudden order, "Wait here, I'll go check it out."

The eyeroll could not be contained. "And how are you going to do that, dumbass," Sora scoffed, picking up the growling head and re-securing his towel. He swung open the door and gingerly stepped out, not at all expecting Kin to come thrashing towards the open doorway with a broom in hand and a crazed look in her eye. 

Terrified, eyes wide and pale as a ghost. "Holy shit, you do wear your towel above the nipples."

"Kin..."

The soft warning snapped her back on track, and soon she'd hustled him out of the room. "Someone's trying to break in--let's go handle that shit." 

 "I'm naked," he said blankly, mildly annoyed that 1) he didn't get to condition that idiot's hair properly and 2) said idiot's sopping wet hair was seeping through his towel and making it stick to his stomach. There were few things in this world Sora hated more than wet towels. Another hard push from Kin and he figured this was probably pretty serious, so he shoved Hidan into her arms, making her drop the broom. Hidan protested loudly but Sora didn't care, he just brushed past them back into the bedroom. "Fine, but stay out for a minute, I have to change."

Kin pouted, "I'm not gonna look--"

"Stay."

Hidan snickered, but otherwise didn't comment as the two were kindly shooed to the main hall. Kin lifted the man-thing so they were eye to eye, "Can you handle yourself in a fight?"

The head scoffed, "I'm gonna pretend you didn't ask that."

"Seriously, I don't need any dead weight. Actually, just seeing you might scare them off--"

 _Crack_ \--The sound of snapping wood snatched their gaze toward the hall's end, a shadowy figure cloaked in the dark of night. They stared at it for precisely one second. Kin was a creature of instinct. She pitched Hidan right at the shadowy figure, flung open the bedroom door, and slammed and locked it behind her. Hidan could fend for himself, she was sure. Sora on the other hand, was now staring at her, helpless and horrified. Sora screamed. Kin stared at his naked form and she screamed. Hidan's faint screaming pierced through the wooden door and damn if she didn't have any ice-cream. 

"Get out!" Sora pelted a shampoo bottle at her head as she dove for cover behind a heavy dresser. 

Kin's high-pitched squeal reached new heights. "Shut up! I'm trapped! Go do something!"

"I c--can't," he stammered, stumbling around and grabbing for his towel. A bang at the door and the flimsy piece of shit broke open. A tall figure stood in the doorway, casting a long shadow from the corridor lights. Sora froze.

A familiar voice boomed, "Is everyone alright?!"

Sora blinked. Yugito. That was Yugito's voice. Yugito was staring at him. Naked.

*

The more Kin thought about it, the less it made sense. How in the hell did two grown ass women wind up squatting outside holding buckets of water over their heads, just for "peeking" at some dude's perky pinks? It made no fucking sense. But every time she thought about complaining, she got a harsh nudge from Yugito's knee and a warning look. _Don't_. So she whined under her breath, "This sucks rocks."

"My apologies," Yugito murmured, sounded genuinely sorry for fucking up the night. "I'm ashamed to admit my clumsiness caused so much chaos."

"You gave me a heart attack," Kin chided, though a small smile was working at her lips. 

A nearby sliding door swiftly opened, sending them both rigid as the scraping of sandals against dirt filled the quiet night air. Sora knelt before them, a deathly glare marring his features as he held up a rather large shard of ceramic pottery for their examination. More specifically, Yugito's examination. The older woman bit her cheek, eyes sharpening as she stared into the soul of this broken shard. Sora waited a moment before speaking, voice like a low hum, "Do you know what this is?"

Kin side-eyed the blond, frightened--yes, hut nonetheless morbidly entertained. Yugito chewed her cheek for a moment. "I imagine... A very important--"

"--Very expensive..."

"...very expensive item...I... I will repay you, whatever the amount."

"Money is not the issue," Sora looked her dead in the eyes, hardened exterior slowly melting into exhaustion. "It was one of a kind. There's nothing to be done for it now."

Kin scrunched up her nose at that. So what? Who gave a shit about some stupid vase or whatever? Just buy a new one! Getting aggravated, she shifted on her haunches a little, feeling the ache in her arms intensify with each passing second. 

*

Things settled down the next day. Sora made a considerable effort to be civil amidst Kin and Hidan's passive aggressive spats. Yugito made breakfast which...turned out about as terrible as everyone expected. She spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the mess she made out front. By the time the clouds parted giving way to a sunny afternoon sky, she'd stumbled out to the garden. Sweat matted blond hair to the back of her neck, making for a very uncomfortable ponytail. She ran her fingers through the tail, feeling cool gushes of air brush past her neck. Quiet overtook the compound for the first time in a while. She mused quietly to herself, standing over the small pond stones and peering inside, as though there were some secret to be discovered. So lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed the presence behind her until it pushed her head first into the water. Panicked, she splashed in the knee deep 'tides' gasping and sputtering like a fish...out of water. One hand slammed against stone, hoisting her up and out of the accursed water that she most definitely would not be leaning over ever again. Black piercing eyes glared up at her assailant, softening only slightly when they met Kin's worried face.

"How long?" Kin threw her hands down to her sides.

Yugito stood on unsteady feet, carefully wringing out her shirt. At least she wasn't sweaty anymore. "How long what?"

Kin huffed, mouth twisting into a sardonic smile. "Don't act dumb. How long do you plan on keeping me here? I'm going crazy. I have...I have a family. You can't keep me here. If you're gonna kill me, just kill me." Another wring of fabric and water splashes to soppy grass. Nimble fingers removed the band tying up her hair so she could wring that too. Kin felt blood rise to her face as the other pointedly, nonchalantly ignored her. So she geared up for another push--only this time Yugito was aware and ready. She thought Sora was fast? She didn't even see how the fuck she ended up spun around, on one knee with her hands wrenched behind her back. Kin gasped as her wrists were pressed together tighter than any pair of cuffs could hold. 

"You don't have a family," said Yugito. Cold as her soaked skin. "You are an easy target in a way. No one would care to look for you."

"That's..." Kin gasped again as her hands were yanked further down her back, painfully arching her gaze toward the sky. Her eyes stung and a cold shock ruptured her chest; just like that, she was suddenly reminded of her position here. She was still a hostage, not an equal. These people could take her life at any time, and this woman was damned right--no one would come looking for her. She hadn't spoken to her "real" family in over a decade, didn't even know if they were alive. Her foster home she would never want to hear from again. And the Akimichi's....well, if they wanted to find her, they would have by now, wouldn't they? They'd have found some way to get to her by now, wouldn't they? Where the fuck were they? Didn't they care? Her next breath raked into her lungs. Yugito waited a beat, then released her. Not gently or harshly--just. Let her go. Kin fell forward to the grass, the shiver in her chest trying so hard to rangle more tears. But she really didn't want to cry.

"I'm doing this to protect you, you know," said the blonde woman as she stepped towards the wooden steps, her wet hair swaying limply behind her. If she felt at all bad for what she did, she certainly didn't show it.

Kin sat back on her haunches, rubbing at her wrists and sniffling. She felt like a child. Ok, so maybe shoving your abductor into a pond wasn't the best way to negotiate your freedom but fuck it, this was so frustrating. They weren't holding her for ransom--because her folks didn't have any fucking money--and they weren't going to sell her because no way she'd be here so long otherwise. It just didn't make any sense. 

Later that day, Sora made lunch for everyone, and although Kin would like nothing more than to shrivel up in "her room" feeling sorry for herself, the to-be-monk simply would not have it. Hidan didn't seem bothered at all by the smoggy tension in the air, but Sora could only stand about five minutes before he snapped. He glared sharply at Yugito--because judging by Kin's puffy red eyes the blond woman must be the one at fault. "Whose funeral am I attending? You two look like your cat just died."

Yugito sniffed and held her teacup to her lips, but otherwise didn't say anything. Sora narrowed his eyes.

Kin poked at her sandwich with anti-enthusiasm. 

"What did you do," Sora's voice laced thick with accusation did nothing to break Yugito's unaffected tea-sipping. 

 The woman lowered her cup to the table, watching Sora from under thick lashes. "I didn't do anything."

 "Did you put mustard in this tuna?" Hidan grumbled around a mouthful of sandwich.

"Bullshit," Sora sneered, shoving the rest of his sandwich into Hidan's mouth to get him to shut the fuck up. Kin gulped, not quite sure how to interject--if she should at all. Suddenly things were getting so awkward and really, it was her fault. But Sora didn't see her discomfort, too trained on suspect #1 to notice. 

Yugito took a small bite of her cheese sandwich and shrugged helpfully.

And lunch ended.

Sora couldn't find a way to pry further--yet. It wasn't his thing afterall. But he had the sense to know when something was wrong. In all fairness--things could never quite be 'right' considering they were holding someone hostage...sort of. Regardless they were getting on fine the day before, and the day before that. If he had to suffer looking after a hostage he at least wanted that hostage to feel somewhat safe. So that night, when Kin settled into her room for a rousing game of solitaire on the floor, he knocked on her door with an offering. Kin hesitated to leave her game, opening the door just a crack to see him standing there in all his awkward glory. The way his tiny brows knitted together in a mish-mash of frustration and worry almost brought a smile to her lips. Almost. "What do you want." she deadpanned, trying not to let her amusement show. 

"I brought you something," he muttered, not quite meeting her eye-to-eye. Kin raised a delicate brow and opened the door further. He had something tucked away in one hand. She thought about shutting the door in his face and telling him to fuck off because really--what could he possibly have that would make things any better? But she didn't. She stepped aside and let him in. And he slowly entered, as if walking into enemy territory undefended. Laughable considering he'd kicked her ass to the hills and back almost every day since she got here. Sora sat at the foot of the futon, eyes lingering briefly over her little solitaire game splayed across the tatami mats. The mild-mannered display gave Kin a small boost of confidence, and before she knew if she found herself plopping down next to him and bumping his shoulder, a silent go-ahead. Sora swallowed, chewing his lower lip as though second-guessing whatever he planned. Without a word, he took her right hand, pressed a smooth, cool object into her palm and enclosed her fingers firmly. "I can't give you any privacy. You don't know any of our names, or where you are. You don't know how long you'll be. But you'll be back soon."

Kin stared as though he'd sprouted a second head because what was he even--"Oh shit," she breathed, eyes widening as she opened her hand. A cellphone. An honest to goodness cellphone in her fucking hand. 

"One call," Sora spoke quietly, lips tight.

Her heart began to flutter as breathing grew more difficult. Waves of emotion rolled over her skin giving her goosebumps; relief (she could finally hear a familiar voice), anger (she could have sworn they had NO phones here), fear (could this be a prank?), hope (maybe they'll find her--trace the call?). Flipping the device open, she punched in the one number she knew by heart and pressed the screen to her ear, nostrils flaring to intake the amount of oxygen her brain suddenly required to function. Ring, ring, ring...

_We're sorry. The number you are dialing is no longer..._

"No," she whispered, tapping End and re-dialing. Holding it to her ear.

_We're sorry. The number you are dialing..._

"No, no no no," her whispers grew frantic as her hands fumbled with the phone, fighting against her body's trembling to input the numbers. Maybe she dialed it wrong. No, she dialed right. Maybe--maybe Sora was just fucking with her after all? This phone probably had no service, that absolute fucking--no, no, he looked just as shocked as she did. "No, no no, no no no--"

"Calm down," Sora said in a hushed tone, trying to pry the cell from her fingers, but she started fighting him. Her feet kicked at the floor, scattering cards all about the room and soon Sora found himself trying to restrain her flailing limbs. He snatched the hand the smacked him in the jaw and pressed it against the futon, sending the cell flying against the wall with a harsh crack. The other hand he managed to catch before it clocked him, but she bucked and he had to pressed his knee into her stomach. He shushed, almost panicked as Kin began to wail. "Kin, what happened? Kin, listen to me--"

She cried, tears rolling down her cheeks as she twisted in agony. It was a miracle no one heard--or if anyone did, they pretended not to. Kin cried and cried, eventually losing the strength to struggle. Sora panted over her, still holding her wrists and trying to piece together what the hell just happened.

"They hate me," she managed between garbled nonsense.

Feeling her more or less relax--fall limp, more like--he hesitantly let her go, moving to fall back on his ass. He ran a shaky hand through his smokey blue hair and heaved a tired sigh. "Who hates you? What happened?" Kin's crying died down to a hiccup, snot smeared from her nose to one ear. The young man didn't even blink as he extended a gentle hand, using his long sleeve to wipe at her face. 

Gods, she felt like such a child. "'m sorry--" she choked, swatting his hand away to wipe at her own damn face. She took another moment to collect herself, just enough so that she could sit up and sort through her thoughts. The abandonment was real. Why else would they disconnect their phone? She sucked in another breath, wiping furiously at her eyes, her nose, her mouth; her face reddening further from the effort. Long black hair toppled over her shoulders, catching snot and tears and getting progressively more tangled and knotted. Eventually, she stopped, throwing her hands down into her lap. Her lips trembled, began to curl again but this time she fought it. "I called...my job...." Another tear slipped from her cheeks but damn it--she was not crying again. Head bent, Kin sniffed loudly, her hair falling like a curtain to shield her. "They...They disconnected the p--phone."

Sora stared in surprise, for a number of reasons, but soon his shoulders relaxed. "That means they hate you?"

"Yes!" she shouted, spinning to glare at him with renewed hatred. "Obviously! If they didn't, they wouldn't have disconnected their phone, you idiot."

"You said... that was your job, correct? A place of business?" She stared at him through labored breathes and nodded, though not sure where this was going. Sora nodded back, making sure she followed. "If they disconnected their phone, I highly doubt it was because of you." Kin swallowed. Sora continued. "If they disconnected, I think it's highly likely they may have...gone out of business."

The thought hadn't occurred to her. At all. Kin glanced down at her lap, and her hands wet with fluids and reddened. Akimichi's place? Out of business? Impossible. That didn't make any sense. But why would they disconnect their phone? That didn't make any sense. Did something happen while she'd been kidnapped? A fire destroyed the place--or they got sued--or robbed--or killed--

"Calm down," Sora said firmly, resting a hand on her shoulder because he could see them tensing again in panic. "There's nothing you can do about it now." He almost felt relieved when the shoulder beneath his touch drooped. If he'd known this was going to happen he'd never have swiped that stupid cellphone. He never used it anyway--and this just reaffirmed his opinion that such technology would be the downfall of mankind. He swallowed thickly, not quite sure what to do at this point because if he'd lectured Yugito for making the young woman upset earlier, he'd have to own up now for devastating her. He rubbed a few awkward circles into her back, but she sat unresponsive. "Why... did you call your job?" he asked tentatively, praying he hadn't just stomped on another landmine.

Kin didn't seem too perturbed. She wiped at her nose again and the movement seemed a bit more aggressive and a bit less hysterical, that had to be a good sign. "I had no one else to call," she croaked. At least, she couldn't remember any other phone numbers off the top of her head. 

Sora bit his lip, gaze falling to his own lap as he contemplated his next words. "You...don't want to call home?"

A snort. "Home?" Kin straightened her back then, brushing fingers through her hair trying to get it in some kind of order. "The restaurant was my home."

"Family restaurant?" he wasn't sure where he was going with this, but he figured talking was better than screaming and crying. 

"Uh, yeah," Kin muttered, sniffing again as she kept hand-combing thick black locks. "Not my family, though."

Sora withdrew to bring his hands together in his lap like a prayer. His eyes gained a distant look as memories bubbled to the surface. "Oh," was all he managed after a minute or so. They sat together, shoulder to shoulder. They could hear the melody of crickets and frogs on the other side of the wall, refusing to let silence overtake the room. Sora glanced at the cards all scattered about and contemplated gathering them up, but decided against it. He brushed some stray strands from his face, tucked them behind his ear so he could see her out the corner of his eye. "I, um," he started, licking his dry lips, lashes fluttering. "I don't have any family either, you know. Just..."

Another moment went by and Kin hummed. She sniffed again, nose still stuffy, and flipped her hair to look at him. "Yugito's not...?"

"Hell no," he muttered, smiling slightly even as he tried to sound offended. When their eyes met, he couldn't fight back the smile anymore. "Really. Do we look alike?"

"Not at all," Kin smiled back, chuckling a bit as she took in the room for the first time. "What a mess," she noted, pointing at the scattered cards.

"I'm not cleaning after you in your own room," Sora nudged her and she pouted.

"First of all, this isn't my room. It's your room. Your guys's room," she stood up abruptly and began gathering the cards anyway. "What about Hidan?"

Sora blanched, "I'd kill myself if I were related to him."

"Harsh," she said sarcastically. Though if they were related, Hidan's random bouts of perverse comebacks would become entirely too disturbing to bear. And Yugito would... Kin tapped the newly stacked cards against her palm, brows knitted together. "Uh...about Yugito," she started, settling back down next to Sora to shuffle the deck. Sora perked up instantly, watching her with obvious interest. Kin's cheeks reddened, more than they already were, as she searched for the right words. "Don't get mad at her, ok? I'm the one who started it."

"No," Sora thinned his lips tightly, ready to cut that train of thought in half right there. "No matter what you do, it is her fault you're here in the first place. You have every right to lash out. She knows that."

Kin blushed harder, if that were possible. She'd never felt so embarrassed in her life--she'd never confessed like that in her life. Normally, Kin would curse and spit and throw tantrums no matter if it were her fault or not. Normally Kin would never apologize or admit defeat. She began shuffling the cards faster, almost spilling them onto the floor again. "Y--yeah, that's right, huh. It's not my fault... Still," the shuffling stopped. "C--can you tell her that...you know...I'm...sorry and...stuff."

Normally, Sora would scoff and tell her to do it herself. But tonight he just rolled up his sleeves and took the deck of cards from her grip. They played cards well into the night, and by the next morning, things were somewhat back to normal. What the hell did normal even mean, though? Kin sat at the table, along with everyone else, chewing on a mouthful of eggs. Is this what they called Stockholm syndrome? What were they, a sitcom family? She eyed Hidan snoring loudly atop the kitchen table and idly wondered if she placed a piece of toast in his mouth would he chew in his sleep or would he inhale and choke? Luckily for him, Yugito didn't give her the chance to act on that impulse. The taller woman leaned over to her, ruby lips pulled into a weak smile. "I have good news, dear," she spoke in a hushed tone, as though it were a secret--though Sora across the table could clearly hear everything.

Still a bit uncomfortable in Yugito's presence, Kin kept her eyes trained on her eggs and toast, but nodded to show she was listening.

Yugito hesitated a bit, before iterating slowly, "You may be able to go home soon."

Kin whipped around, "How soon?"

"A few days. Maybe three."

The table rattled with force as Kin shot up, face bright and looking happier than they'd ever seen her before. Not the snarky kind of happy where she laughed at another's misfortune, but honest to goodness delight. She threw her arms around Yugito neck and squealed incoherently while the woman simply shot out her hands to steady them, eyes widening at the sudden show of affection. She smiled wryly, "I take it you didn't enjoy your stay."

"Fuck no," Kin squealed, pulling away from the other woman still seated. She turned to Sora, practically jumping from excitement. He didn't return the sentiment.

Sora nodded his head and stood up. "I'm going for a walk." Kin's smile faltered a bit as he rounded the table.

"Ah ah, take that with you," Yugito said pointing at the snoozing head.

Sora grumbled, but came back to pluck Hidan off the table before disappearing from the kitchen. Kin watched him leave, her open mouthed smile falling into a small, disappointed 'o'. Yugito didn't seem to notice though, gingerly sipping at her usual morning tea. 

*

"What are you getting all pissy for?"

Sora jumped a little at the voice, not expecting any sound other than the fallen leaves crunching beneath his feet. The temple grounds were quite expansive, surrounded by miles of forest with only a single dirt path through the trees to indicate human habitat. He frowned, lifting and turning Hidan around so they could stare each other at eye level. "I knew you were awake, you faker."

"Shaddap," Hidan sneered, one eye narrowed as he stuck his tongue out. Rather childish, Sora noted. "Sad your little girlfriend is leaving so soon? Faggot."

Wisely, Sora chose not to comment on that train of logic, instead returning a rather nasty look of his own. Two can play at that game. "I'm sad I'll be stuck alone with you again. I should leave your ass in the woods."

"Bitch please, you love me," said the head with unshakable confidence. Sora would really love to know where that confidence stemmed from. Hidan glanced down then with a sigh, a motion that caught the other off guard. The man appeared almost wistful. "Don't ever lose your body, kid. It ain't no fun."

Sora stared incredulously and stopped walking. Lucky that he did too, because he almost walked into a tree, Hidan first. The questions crossed his mind many times, but before Kin arrived, he'd never thought to actually ask them. Would it be too awkward to ask them now? Would Hidan get mad...? If he did, who'd give a fuck? He imagine that's what Kin would say. Sora swallowed, not meeting Hidan's own questioning eyes. Gods he needed a glass of water. "So...," Sora started, turning the head around and lowering it so blond hair was pressed to his chest. "Uh, how did you lose your body?"

"Hah?" Hidan's voice picked up so many octaves it echoed through the woods, sending Sora into a random bout of paranoia. "Why you so interested all of a sudden?"

Sora shrugged, realized the other couldn't see him, then grumbled. "I've been taking care of you all this time. Makes sense I should know why."

"Taking care of me? What bullshit. I can take care of myself, thank you very much." Sora didn't dignify that with a response. Hidan would have shifted on his feet if he had any, but he didn't, so. "You never asked your friend?"

"What friend."

"That bitch who pays all your fucking bills, dickhead," Hidan growled, growing more agitated by the second. Sora figured this was a good time to start walking again. A change of scenery might make things easier on the poor talking head. Maybe from an area with so many trees to an area with even more fucking trees. He could practically feel the scowl twisting Hidan's features as he spoke, "She cut my head clean off, the asshole. If I ever get my body back, she's at the top of my list. Then it's you, you little shrimp."

Sora snorted. "So you lost a fight in the sewers and Yugito took you back to my place as a trophy."

"Hey, hey, HEY, I didn't LOSE, okay. I made a little MISTAKE," Hidan clarified rather loudly. A couple birds flitted from the area as they approached, but otherwise nothing else seemed to stir. They traveled about another half hour down the mountainside, toward a large lakeside. Sora stared across the lake at the old abandoned cottage on the other side. No particular reason why, he just liked it out here. In the mornings, there was always a thick and heavy mist. Hidan once told him it was the perfect setting for mass murder. Whatever. He slipped off his sandals at the bank and approached the murky water, testing the temperature with his toe. Hidan perked up, "You're not gonna throw me in there, are you? Cuz I will fuck you up."

"Shut up," Sora huffed, pulling back on his sandals. Way too cold. 

The head sniffed, then jerked a bit in the younger man's hands. "Shit, there's a cabin there?" 

"You just noticed?"

"Shut the fuck up. Who lives over there?"

"No one. It's abandoned. Obviously."

"Huh...let's check that shit out." Hidan sounded so excited.

Sora wrinkled his nose. "It's probably filthy in there." He really didn't want to walk all the way over there just to go traipsing through a spider-filled cabin of dust and nightmares. But now Hidan wouldn't shut up about it and the only way to get peace would either be to go over there or throw the head into the lake. Yugito probably would not appreciate the latter so Sora resigned himself to exploring the filth-laden cabin.

He ambled along the shoreline, idly wondering how nice it'd be if Hidan did somehow get his body back. That way he wouldn't have to carry him all over the place and wouldn't have to go wandering into dens of bacteria. He hadn't noticed he'd said any of this outline until Hidan snorted below him. "I wouldn't waste my time here if I got my body back, shitty brat."

"What's the first thing you'd do?" Sora wondered aloud, not paying too much attention though. Too busy walking around puddles and not tripping over fallen logs.

Hidan gave a breathy laugh. "After killing that bitch? I'd get you."

"Good thing you're not getting your body back, then," Sora deadpanned, hopping over another log. He didn't really like entertaining Hidan's hair-brained fantasies of murder and whatnot, but if what Hidan said was true--that Yugito lopped off his head and that's why he's like this--then Sora felt one hundred percent certain Hidan provoked/deserved it and would do whatever he could to prevent the man from ever walking again.

Hidan growled lowly, eyes darkening in thought though his companion couldn't see it. "Do you have any idea what I would do to you."

"Yes, stab me, cut open my stomach, rip out intestines, yadda yadda," Sora yawned as they approached their destination. It took about ten minutes or so, but they were there, standing before the rotted lodge. A western style wooden cabin with boarded up windows and gaping holes in the roof. Hidan seemed fucking enamored. "Are we done here?" Sora groaned, his fingers pressing into Hidan's cheeks because he knew it'd get to him.

The older man snapped, "Of course not, let's go inside! Stop being such a pussy."

First of all. "No." Second of all. "If you're so interested, how about I just toss you up on the roof, and you can roll down one of those holes."

"Yeah, that plan sounds airtight, numbnuts. Just kick open the goddamn door."

Why was he doing this? Sora didn't know. If he were being honest with himself, probably because being with Hidan made him feel a little less lonely, thus he felt obligated to go along with the other's whims. Whatever. Sora approached the porch with utmost caution, slooowly tiptoeing up the creaky steps. The window of the cabin door was the only piece of glass not boarded up, but it was too dirty and fogged up to see through anyway. He tucked Hidan under one arm and reached for the crusty doorknob with the other, surprised to find the thing unlocked. With one jerky motion, he forced open the door. A cloud of dust assaulted his face and he sneezed right into Hidan's crown, much to the other man's vocal disgust. Inside was as dark as they expected, but the outside light revealed what they needed to see. Which was nothing much. There were holes in the floor, weeds shooting up between boards, some broken chairs, and what appeared to be the crumbling remnants of a fireplace. Lots of mold. Cobwebs filled the small space, giving it a very unwelcoming atmosphere. Sora was done. "Happy?" he scoffed, really really hoping this satisfied Hidan's curiosity.

"The fuck? There's nothing in here!" exclaimed the talking head. 

Sora rolled his eyes. "What were you hoping to find exactly?"

"I don't know. Dead bodies, treasure chests--," Hidan cut short his ramblings as something on the floor caught his eye. "What the hell is that?"

A small chill ran through the to-be-monk's spine as his eyes darted about the room. "What's what?"

"Footprints, man. I thought you said this shit was abandoned." Sora stared with wide eyes, not sure what to say because those sure as hell did look like shoe prints on the dirty floor. Large, freshly placed, shoe prints. And suddenly he didn't feel safe. Amidst loud protests, Sora backed out of the cabin, nearly tripping down the steps on his way. Hidan snorted much too loudly, "Scared, princess?" No, no Sora was NOT scared. Just smothered in bad feelings, that's all. Not like he'd say that out loud. Hidan could complain all he wanted; Sora quickened his pace through the woods, ears straining to pick up any sound above the crunching of leaves under his own feet. Unlike earlier, there were no more birds, no insects, no animals whatsoever. How far had they walked? A good forty five minutes or so. He could be back in thirty at this pace, twenty if he ran some of the way. But he kept his pace because he wasn't scared. By the time they reached the temple gates, Sora's breathing was labored. He stopped at the front gate, Hidan still carefully pressed against his chest like a shield. Hidan had stopped blathering long ago, so his sudden laugh made Sora jump a bit. "You had visitors, kid."

Sora frowned, not at all happy with the asshole's attempts at riling him up. "Stop making shit up, it isn't funny."

No one visited this temple anymore. The very notion was ridiculous. Nothing seemed out of place and things were quiet, so. Sora inhaled deeply and pressed on, stomping inside without further delay. Everything looked normal, but Yugito and Kin were nowhere in sight. Pssh, probably napping or showering, or painting their nails. No big deal. He laughed under his breath, "They're probably asleep. I should make lunch."

"You do that, sweetheart," mocked the head with a roll of his eyes.

Sora stepped into the kitchen and promptly dropped Hidan to the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been like 3 months. Got sick, went on vacation, got sick again, then just had trouble picking back up where I left off. Hehe... I promise next chapter we will see more Ino and Sakura. Have to keep the plot moving along. As always, I'm open to any suggestions/ideas for scenes and such. And thank you for waiting so long! Hopefully I don't get sick again, but if the stuffy nose is any indicator...

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


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